LOL... im BAckkkk. Im so glad i updated , school is takin such a toll on my time to update, and on my time on the comp, so... im so sorry, and i know this chapter well make everythingwell again, but i know you guyswill be really madat mefor the cliffy i left you guyson... heehee
And i will dedicate this chapter to Valda, for your fabulous story and quick update...
Wedding Bells
Chapter 11 Meet You at Your House
Starfire smiled in the darkness, a normal eye wouldn't have been able to see it by the dim light of the moon, which was covered by the clouds, but to Nightwing's finely trained eyes, he could see it just perfectly. He scooped Starfire up in his arms, and taking her relaxing into him as a 'go on', he bent down and whispered into her hair,
"I missed you."
They stayed like that for God knows how long. But the moon was high; way higher than it was when they first made their way up to the roof.
Just like old times.
Starfire had no idea how much she missed Robin just holding her like that, until this minute, when she felt his warmth again. He had never lost his smell, cheap hair gel, and soap. Starfire giggled as she thought of that. Sniffing harder and deeper than necessary, she also smelled, mixed in to his signature smell; was smell she probably would have never identified unless she was a celebrity. It was the scent of very expensive cologne. It got her pretty confused. Is Robin someone rich?
"What are you giggling about?" Nightwing playfully asked her.
That's when the thoughts of Richard Grayson suddenly made its unpleasant way into her mind.
"Robin, I- I we can't be they way we use to be. I'm glad I can speak to you again, but I'm dating – "
Robin laughed. "I read all the articles about you, Kory Anders, and I followed your every move in magazines, newspapers, the usual tabloids, so, of course I know that you're dating Richard Grayson."
Star's mouth dropped opened. "You - you know I'm Kory Anders?"
"Of course, known the minute I saw you in your first magazine."
"And you believe everything that's in the Tabs.!"
"Not everything, but most of it." Nightwing's half-smile that Star knew so well began to creep up to his features.
"So you believe that I'm marrying Nick Payson?"
"Of course not!"
"Good. And you should believe what it says about Richard and me."
"That you're pregnant with his lovechild?"
"NO! I'm not pre- hey! Since when did they ever print that out? How come I never saw – "
"Relax, I made it up. And about Richard Grayson…"
"He's not Red X." Star said automatically, pulling away at last to look at him with her arms crossed over her chest. Nightwing only let her go, very reluctantly, because he didn't want to get on her bad side. But he was now missing the warmth that her body gave him.
"Never said he was." Carefully putting reluctance out of his voice.
"Then?"
"It's just that, well Richard Grayson is…" his chest and stomach hurt from his butterflies, he really, really didn't want to tell her…
"Richard Grayson is – "
"Oh, it's you guys" came a voice from the roof door. Both Nightwing and Starfire spun around so fast and they bumped into each other. Beast Boy's head poked out from the frame of the roof door.
"Uh, am I interrupting something?" BB said, ginning broadly and knowingly.
"No, Beast Boy, of course not." Starfire answered him casually, "It's late, I'd better get to bed. Goodnight." She walked towards the door with unnecessary speed, and after she went through and closed it, Beast Boy put his animal trained ear to it, listening. After a minute or so, he pulled away from the door, and looked at squarely at Robin.
"Did you tell her?"
"Tell who what?" Nightwing asked confused.
"Don't play dumb with me, Boy Wonder, did you tell Star?"
"About what?"
"Do I have to do everything for you around here? And I thought you were smart."
"I am. Smarter than you, at least." Nightwing added with a sneer at Beast Boy, but really, he had no idea where BB was going.
"No your not, 'cause if you were smart, like the rest of us, you would have figured out that what your going to end up hurting Star if you keep up what your doing."
"What am I doing?"
"DUDE! Stop playing dumb already! That's my job! Ok, what I'm trying to say is that STAR will feel BETRAYED if you don't tell her SOON!" BB was literally jumping up and down, yelling the top of his voice.
"Oh, so none of you guys told her? It would've been much easier if one of you told her. You know Terra's an excellent – "
"Oh, God. You're hopeless. Man, Rae's gonna kill me."
"Raven's gonna kill you?"
"Never mind, forget what I just said. Just tell Star before she finds out herself. Or it'll be the worst for you."
"Master Dick, someone called you while you were away on your little meeting in Jump."
"Really? Who?" Robin's voice had just came into the house from the Batcave through one of Batcave's many hidden entrance and exits. Alfred had, apparently been waiting in the kitchen for him to return; knowing that the first place he would go to first was the kitchen.
"A charming young lady by the name of Kory Anders."
Robin was taken aback by this sudden news. Starfire called? "How can Starfire call? She was in Titans Tower with the rest of us."
"Miss Starfire, apparently, has a extremely new invention called a cell phone." Alfred answered curtly, with a hint of smile playing at his lips.
Richard rolled his eyes, he was not thinking straight at all. Maybe his little session with Star last night really messed with his brains. "Yeah, yeah, what time did she call?"
"About 10 last night."
"That's about the same time she entered the Tower."
"Then she must have phoned you on the way to the Tower. And, Master Dick, if you don't mind, I really need to tend to the garden." And with that, the gray-haired butler left Master Dick, who immediately went to his room and speed-dialed a certain lady.
"Hello?" came an angelic voice into the receiver.
"Kory? Hey, it's Richard. You called?"
"Yeah." She answered kinda breathlessly.
"Yeah, I, um… kinda missed it. Was out. On a meeting."
"Oh, yeah, I sort of have today as a day off, so I was wondering if – "
"Want me to pick you up?" Kory is asking for another date… Kory is asking for another date… Kory…
"Nah, I'll meet you at your house."
"Sure." That's his Star, never complicated, always knows what she wants. None of the talk codes that other girls use when they want something from guys. And for that, he is certainly glad.
So when Richard Grayson hung up with Kory Anders, he went to his room and dress up in his usual faded designer jeans and an expensive branded Tee. He had a quick shower and when he was done, he went down to the living room and lounged on the couch, watching TV. About 30 min or so, the doorbell rang.
"It's alright, Alfred, I'll get it." Richard said as Alfred walked past him. Alfred shrugged and walked back into the Kitchen, no doubt, to continue to prepare a lavish and expensively looking lunch.
"Hi Kor - Wha… Kory. This is Kory… right?" he stuttered timidly, For standing in front of him, was a young woman with eyes that resembled Star's, but, the hair… when did Star go Raven on him? Her black hair looked so out of place framing her bright green eyes.
"You like? It's my hair color of the day." Star said with a smug grin. "Oh, and by way, I am Kory Anders, nice to meet ya." Her grin became ear-to-ear as she leaned forward and pecked him on the cheek.
"Ok, ok, I get it. You're trying to confuse me with all your hair colors right? So that I won't recognize you right?" Richard smirked as he brought his arms around Kory. She leaned into him.
"Why would I want to do that?"
"Um… I dunno. But never mind that, what do you want to do? It's kinda boring here at the Wayne Mansion."
Starfire suddenly let out a dramatic gasp as she pulled away from him. Richard looked at her, utterly shocked. Her eyes, then, began to sparkle with mirth as she bent double, giggling.
"Oh… my… gosh, Ri-chard," She said between giggling. "You – oh my gosh – you should have seen your face…" giggle, giggle. "It was so… fu… nnyyyy…"
"Kory…" he said as he began to pout.
Star was still laughing. She wished that she could just stop and tell him where she would like to go, but every time she tried to clam down, she would picture the guy's shocked and frightened face and she would laugh even harder than before.
"Breath, Kory, deep breaths. Come on, girl. Come back to me. Now, breath, in through the left nostril, out through the right – "
"Be quite, Richard! What do you know." Kory stopped laughing just long enough to pretend to be mad at Richard, then, "Ha, ha, Richard, you should have seen your face!" and the giggling started again.
Richard smiled weakly, but he still didn't know what was so funny, like come on, he had thought Kory had finally found out that Robin and Richard was the same person…
"Ok, fine. Be that way, Kory, if you're just gonna laugh, I might as well leave you to laugh by yourself." He actually turned around and was about to close the door when Kory took a deep breath and caught his arm halfway to the doorknob.
"I'll calm… See? I'm calm." She said as she smiled. Richard though she looked as though laughing drained out a lot of her energy. "Oh, yeah, what I was about to say… I just discovered this really cool place I want to visit with you…"
Robin quirked one of his eyebrows.
Kory sighed, "You see, today, when I came to your house, I kinda took the long way –"
"That's why you took so long to get here." He muttered under his breath. Kory, however, talked on like there was no interruptions.
" – And I found out that there's this forest just a little north to the Wayne Manor. It looks really remote and scary…"
"And you wanna go there?" Richard asked skeptically.
"Yeah! I wanna check it out! It seems so Halloween-y! Don't you want to come?"
"Ok, sure, but you know that you don't have to take the road-road, there's a short cut.
So, they set off.
Kory looked at Richard who was a few paces ahead. She had only known this guy for a little more than 2 months, and already he felt like her soul mate. It must have been the way he walks; she mused, for his walk reminded her of Robin's. Not his athletic, Ima-kick-your-ass-right-now run, but just his leisure walk.
Sometimes, Kory would sit, staring out the window, and she would think about Richard… and Robin… together… would she be considered a player? 'Cause Richard is un-naturally like Robin…
"Uh, Kory? We're here."
Kory snapped out of her thoughts ever so quickly and looked up at Richard. He had a look on his face that made Kory feel like he could actually read her thoughts. The thought made her blush and almost trip over a tree root that stuck out. Covering up her klutzy-ness, she pulled Richard's hand and led him into the forest.
The trees were so closely woven that the only evidence of a sky above was few pathetic patches of light through certain branches. The floor was carpeted with leaves of red, orange, yellow, brown, and green. The sounds of animal life were all around them.
"So, Richard have-it-all Grayson, don't you just love the sounds, smells, and sights of nature?" Starfire always had a knack for Mother Earth. She could almost be the female version of David Suzuki.
"Yea, yeah, believe or not, I've been here lots of times. So much I can practically map out this whole place." Unimpressed, Richard just wanted to take Star into the cinema and snuggle up with a good movie…
"You have no love for Mother Nature!" Star pouted. Richard sighed and looked at her, then he smiled and said, quite perkily,
"Ok, fine, 2 hours, max. Then we go and watch the Fog." He said gloomily.
"Ok." Kory brightened up happily and speed walked into the forest, Richard ran to catch up.
Starfire looked so gorgeous, he mused silently. He remembered it like yesterday when they would spend hours upon hours on top of the roof of Titans Tower. Even on –30 degrees Celsius days, when he would bring a twenty thousand-dollar, leather jacket, courtesy of Bruce Wayne. Starfire, who had no idea just how expensive the jacket was, would always be happy to snuggle up with him.
She was so happy, that one time, as she was running to meet him on the roof, sometime in December, she had slipped on a patch of ice. Tamaran never had water, so therefore, no ice, she had no idea how slippery it was. But, Robin couldn't help but laugh, even if a speeding starbolt nearly blasted him.
Maybe it was because his mind was full of slipping and falling so much that he didn't give a sticking tree root any thought or attention. Maybe the tree root was just attention seeking, because it caught well-coordinated Richard Grayson around his toes and he was uncharacteristically thrown off-balance. Then Mother Earth gave him a face plant with a loud thud.
Starfire stared hard at Richard at first, concern filling those emerald peepers. When Richard raised his head, she kneeled down beside him to make sure he was ok, then, without warning of any kind, she burst out laughing.
Her head was thrown back and her giggles echoed through the forest. Richard, who (for the second time that day) didn't think it was that funny, frowned disapprovingly at her. She was still laughing like crazy, tear were running down her cheeks. Richard, still frowning, brushed the dirt off his face and the dried leaves out of his spiked hair.
He waited till she calmed down, but her mirth seemed endless. Finally having enough, he grabbed her forcefully down on the ground so that he was on top, then he tickled her like there was no tomorrow. Her giggles became more and more scattered as she fought to tickle him back. And she trashed around and around, but he still kept on tickling her.
Finally, when he stopped, her breath was heavy and ragged, and her hair was messed up, with bits of leaves and dirt on it. Her clothes were probably muddy, but she had a huge grin on her face. Richard was panting like he had just run a marathon or two, but he too was grinning like a maniac.
He finally calmed down enough to say, "Now, is it that funny?"
If it was possible, Starfire's grin seemed to have broadened. "Oh, yea you should have seen yourself, Richard. Your arms were flapping like a duck, and you looked like a ballerina, wished I could've gotten it tape, then you could've seen for – "
But she couldn't get anything else out. Richard leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. His lips tasted a bit like the mud that he fell on, but next to that, it was warm, and delicious.
Star stood up as they broke apart for air. But as soon was they were on their feet, she wrapped a dirt-stained arm around Richard, and raised her lips to meet his. She felt his hand travel down her arms, to rest at her hips, and then to travel up again to draw circles on her back. She let her hand run up under his shirt. She frowned when she felt that his stomach was bandaged, and she jerked away when she came felt something sticky.
"Richard…" she lifted up his shirt, ignoring his protests, "What happened to you?"
The bandages were wrapped around his whole middle, but she noticed that some of the blood had seeped through the cotton on his left side, that's apparently where he got cut. Starfire's mind was racing. She seemed to be remembering something. A memory of a memory. She should've known something; something that was missing; something that was supposed to click if she remembered what she was suppose to remember…
Suddenly it came to her. A dark night, sharp things that was sticking out of the ground; 5 in total, the 5th one bloody. Red splotches of blood, Nightwing's blood. And sky blue eyes; his eyes.
Starfire looked up and looked into Richard's eyes. Robin's eyes.
Wow... Punky Starfire, robinstarfire4ever, Girl Wonder 2005, inukag1188, jade, deadly-anger,inukag1188, nobody(4 the time being), fluffgirl, Valda,strodgfrgf, Kory-Ana-Star,Illegally Blonde, Anime Chick009,aheroiclove, starbolt, InkBlotted Chakra, chicagonebananas, tigerchic121, Love Angel Monkey, Samanthe2121, MyMonkeyIsOrange, falyn anjel, Sasscreech,and april4rmH-town for reviewing.
-Sersee