Chapter two: First comes love

The boy wonder and everyone else stood absolutely speechless. There shone two eyes that no one had seen in over a decade, and should never had been revealed. At least, not now. The tension was traveling through Robin's body. It made him weaker by every single second that passed onward. The stress caused him to collapse on to the floor with a groan.

"Robin!" Starfire screamed. She quickly kneeled beside his tired body. "Robin, please..."

Raven flew over next to Starfire and placed a hand gently on Robin's shoulder. A black glow formed then faded.

"He should be fine now... physically anyway." she said assuringly. She then glared at Beast boy and Cyborg. "You did this. You just had to see his eyes. It wasn't your business!"

Beast boy didn't move. He just stood with an enormous frown planted on his face. Cyborg was the same.

"I didn't mean to do this!" he snapped.

"Ditto." Cyborg agreed nervously.

"Well, you might not have meant to, but he's like this now because of youridiotic selflessness!" Raven argued.

"Well-"

"Please, stop the fighting! Robin is awakening." Starfire said gently.

Robin lifted his head slowly. His mind had seemed to have emptied itself slightly.

"Don't worry about me. I'm fine." he mumbled. "I just need some space,"

Starfire lifted him by the arm off the floor and placed him on the couch.

"Robin are you-"

"What did I just say!" he growled. "Leave me alone!"

With that he steadied himself off the couch and marched as fast as he could to his room.

"Your welcome." Raven muttered dryly.

"Why is friend Robin acting so?" Starfire asked. "It is simply a mask."

Nobody responded.

"Why?"

Still quiet.

"I am going after him! And if you cared you would do the same!" she shouted as she stormed off.

Robin's room . . .

"Robin, I wish to speak to you."

"Leave me alone."

"Please let me in."

"I said-"

"Robin, I do not wish to see you hurt so!"

"Everyone else does."

"They do not! They feel very sorry, I am sure."

"I don't think so."

"Robin, please let me enter."

"Why should I?"

"Because I-I care for you very d-deeply."

Those words hit him like a baseball. "You do?"

"More than you shall ever know."

There was a tense silence.

"May I now enter?"

"I guess,"

He slowly approached the door. When it opened, Starfire looked at him. He was now masked, his hair was a mess, he was partially in his pajamas and partially in his usual crime fighting suit, and had a comb stuck in his tangled hair. Starfire giggled very softly at his appearance.

"Robin, you look...charming." she said in an effort to make him feel better.

"Thanks. Come in." he mumbled.

Starfire entered. Robin shut the door behind her and flopped face down onto his bed. "You were saying?" he inquired hopefully into his pillow.

"I noticed that your eyes are quite troubled looking. Beast boy told me that you have hidden your eyes because you did not wish for me to know how you supposedly feel. But I believe that there is more than that."

"Yup."

"Well, what is there?"

"Memories."

"What kinds?"

"Bad ones."

"Like what?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Robin, you must tell someone."

"I don't think so."

"You should."

"Maybe,"

Starfire moved closer to him. "If you do not feel comfortable with telling me, you do not have to. I do not wish to as Earthlings say: 'pry'."

"You're not."

"Am not?"

"Prying."

"Robin, do you wish for me to leave?"

"NO!" he blurted. "But what do you mean by you care deeply!"

"I care very much."

'How much' he thought.

"Now why did you treat us so?" Starfire interrupted his thoughts. "And why did you attempt to harm friend Beast boy? And why-"

"Star, my eyes hold a lot of, well, memories. Like I said, some good and some bad. But I've had mostly good ones since I met you."

Starfire blushed.

"And the others of course!" he covered up. "Anyway, I've been through some pretty intense things in my life and I never thought I'd talk about them, but I know I can trust you. You're my best friend and I'm sure I can tell you. But you'll never tell anyone right?"

Starfire nodded quickly.

"Do you really promise?"

"On Tameran."

"Alright well, here it goes. Um...when I was little, my parents . . ."

Later . . .

"And that's when Batman, or Bruce - whatever you wanna call him -told me I should go. Then I met up with Cyborg, then he introduced me to Beast boy, then we bumped into Raven, and then I found you. And here I am. That's my life. Now do you see why I've hidden these eyes?" Robin finished.

Starfire was shocked to hear his story. She felt like crying, but fiercely fought back the tears. Her heart was pounding at top speed and it hurt. Her smile was gone. Her eyes were as sad as Robin's at the moment. But she didn't feel like hiding them. Although, she did now understand very well why Robin did.

"Robin, I-"

Robin put a finger to her lips. "Don't." he said as he walked to the darkest corner of the room and he turned to face the wall. "But now you know why, right? I mean why I hid my eyes and everything."

Starfire followed him. "Robin, I feel that your feelings may be changed. You may still have your past, but that does not change your future." she assured him.

"Star, I don't think you really understand. But it's hard to. You've had a great life here. You just wouldn't understand." Robin whispered.

"Robin! I do understand!" she protested. "When I was very small I was given into slavery to save Tameran! The Psions experimented on me! Then I barely escaped and fell to Earth. I have been through almost as much tragedy as you have! It was terrifying to be handed away like that! Do you now think I understand!"

Robin felt the same as Starfire had for him...well, even worse than she did. She had been through as much or more than him, but she was always so positive and never put a negative spin on things. So why couldn't he...?

"Star, why didn't you ever tell us?"

"I did not feel that is was necessary."

"I think it is."

"I do not wish to-"

He cut her words off gently. "But I'll never let anyone hurt you. Remember that."

Starfire could feel tears welling up in her eyes. "I w-will."

"Good." Robin responded.

Suddenly he felt something force him to turn around. Quickly he faced Starfire's gentle and somber face. His masked eyes stared into her's for a long time. Then he pressed his lips against hers...feeling that now they really did have too much in common to ignore. A squeak of surprise escaped her mouth, but then she soon closed her eyes and kissed him back. Robin pulled away quickly when he realized what he was doing.

"I must be out of my mind!" he yelled.

"Robin?" Starfire squeaked happily. "I did not think you-"

"Starfire, I'm so sorry! I don't know what came over me! I'm so sor-"

Starfire gave him an assuring hug. "Do not worry!" she giggled. "I am quite pleased."

Robin smiled back at her nervously. "You mean you uh, like me that way?"

"Of course! The others seemed to notice. I wonder why we did not realize our emotions for one another?"

"I guess we thought it would be too good to be true. But I've kinda had that crush on you for a really long time."

"You have wished to crush me for a long period of time?"

Robin waved his hands in defense. "NO! It just means I've liked you for a long time! Crush is just a figure of speech."

"Oh. That is glorious to know!"

"Um, don't tell," Robin mumbled.

"Excuse me?"

"Just never speak of anything that I told you about my past. Okay?" he said.

"Yes, I promise! But may I tell about our- er...emotions?"

"They know anyway. I don't really care anymore."

"GLORIOUS!" she exclaimed. "But I wish to see your eyes again. Only, if it is okay with you."

"Knock yourself out."

"You wish for me to harm myself in an effort to become unconscious?" she blinked with innocent shock.

"Just another expression, Star." he chuckled.

"What does it truly mean?"

"Go ahead," he breathed softly.

Starfire beamed. She slowly tugged the mask off his face.

"OW! WATCH I-YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW!"

"I am sorry...hold still, Robin!"

"OUCH! LET ME DO IT!"

She slapped his hand away. "I wish to proceed! Hold still!"

She counted the seconds until she could really examine his eyes. Now, there it was. The mask laid in her hand and in its place laid Robin's sparkling blue eyes. This time they didn't seem nearly as sad. They looked almost as happy as Starfire's did.

"They are lovely, Robin..."

She felt around with her finger where his mask used to lay. His eyes seemed as deep as an ocean. She would have drowned in them if he hadn't blinked.

"Thanks, Star. So are your eyes."

"Thank you, Richie!" she teased playfully (he told her his real name and she decided to call him Richie or whatever). "But why do you still wear a mask?"

"I have my reasons."

"You have told me them."

"Not all of them."

"Please, what are the rest?"

"One is just so villains can't tell what moves I'm going to make. They could probably see it in my eyes. I don't want take any chances."

"I understand. But will I ever see your eyes again?"

"On special occasions."

"ROBIN AND STARFIRE SITTING IN A TREE! K-I-smooch-smooch -I-N-G! FIRST COMES LOVE THEN-"

Robin pressed the mask on his face quickly. "Were not thinking that far." he hissed. "But possibly boyfriend and girlfriend."

Starfire clapped her hands excitedly. "REALLY!"

"Why not." Robin answered to Starfire. "But will you just shut up!" he yelled at Beast boy and Cyborg.

Cyborg continued singing horribly and Beast boy pretended to kiss at the air.

"THEN COMES um... oh yeah! BEAST BOY IN THE BABY CARRIAGE!" Cyborg sang.

Beast boy stopped. "I'm not going into any baby carriage! You are! I'm no baby!" he barked.

"Oh yeah? Well what's that on your head?" Cyborg asked.

There was a baby bonnet placed on top of Beast boy's head. "You just put that there!"

"No, that would be me." Raven corrected. She floated into the room with a smirk on her face. "How's the happy couple?"

"We are glorious, friend Raven! It is quite delightful to see everyone so happy and musical!" Starfire cheered.

The dark girl rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

"I believe this is a perfect time to proceed with a group hug!"

Starfire gathered Robin, Raven, Beast boy, and some how managed to squeeze Cyborg into her arms as she said this.

"OW! What just hit my eye!" Beast boy screamed.

"I guess I got my comb out!" Robin laughed.

Everyone laughed with him...except BB.

On every occasion which Robin considered to be special -like Christmas or Starfire's birthday - he would remove his mask for about an hour like he promised. Every long once in a while he and Starfire would go out on a short date. But every day they had a happy ending to their day.

The End

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Thank you all SO very much for reading and reviewing my little story. It means so much to me. All of your reviews on the last chapter made my day! I will be writing more stories soon.

-PWG