OMG, I am so sorry...! I haven't updated anything for like a decade... Well, not quite that long, but it seems that way...

Oh, Layer Cake - you weren't suposed to have dragged on this long...

Starfire

"If you wish not to be destroyed, you will leave me alone!" – Starfire; Go!

She kissed him.

She came crashing down to Earth like a sparking emerald comet, she wrecked half of Downtown, she threw a bus at them all; and then she kissed him.

Her lips were hot and dry and tasted like dust. Space-dust, maybe.

Or maybe just regular Earth-dust, resting on her lips after being kicked up by the destruction she had wrought on the entire block.

One moment he was picking the locks on her cuffs, hoping secretly that she wasn't going to paste him across the jaw the moment her hands were free; and next her hand was clamped around the back of his neck and her lips were clamped against his.

Which possibly shocked him more than a superhuman smack across the face would have done.

Her lips had an electrifying heat to them, and that wasn't just wishful thinking on his part. He would come to understand the tingling sensation of her mouth and the blazing white that momentarily wiped throughout his mind later (in Tokyo); but for now, he just stood there.

He didn't kiss back, he didn't struggle, he didn't do anything. He just stood there like a lemon while she engaged him in the kind of lip-lock Babs had always edged around – then shoved him onto his back, spoke in English and flew away.

He watched her go, still flat on his ass, stunned; as the other three gathered around. The green kid broke the silence, was ignored, and the hooded girl sighed audibly.

"Well," declared the tall black teen loudly, looking around at the shot-up street, "I sure hope we don't get sued for this…"

"And this mask makes you look very mysterious…" – Blackfire; Sisters

Maybe that was the start of the attraction. Starfire, in all her new-to-Earth glory – her black clothing, metallic armor, face-framing tiara. Before they came to know the sweet, naïve girl beneath it, they knew the spitfire fighting-machine who leveled half of Cyborg's 'hood.

Maybe it was that first kiss that had done it.

Or maybe it was the red hair. She was unlike Babs in a lot of ways; but in others, so very like her. Maybe it was comfort, what he found in her.

Whatever it was, he found himself inexplicably drawn to her; and she very promptly attached herself to him, though he pretended not to notice. He was shyer around her than he had been with Barbara – maybe because Babs hadn't seemed so far out of his league.

Babs wasn't from another solar system, to start with.

But he'd found it easier with Babs. Or maybe because Babs was older she had been able to read him better. Starfire was more naïve, more easily led and upset; the slightest nudge away on his part, mostly out of awkwardness or embarrassment, and he'd see the hurt in her eyes. Babs had dealt with it better, teased him, accused him of playing hard to get.

Or maybe even being in the shadow of the Bat had made it easier. Surrounded by three of their peers made it awkward – Cyborg and BB would joke relentlessly about it, and Raven would roll her eyes and forever be more interested in her book.

And on that note, he felt it only acceptable to act on what he felt for Starfire when it was needed.

Strangely enough, Blackfire always seemed to fall into that equation.

Twice he – and they, collectively as a team – had almost lost Starfire because of her sister's scheming. She might have been thrown into jail on the Centauri Moon System; or unhappily married to some floating Jell-O mould with an unpronounceable name.

Blackfire. She looked a little like Starfire had when she had first fallen to Earth. Same clothes, anyway. And to think they had all been taken in by her, trusted her; fawned over her to the extent that Starfire had even felt unwanted, and replaced by her big sister.

He felt guilty enough when he remembered that, when "Blazin' B" first came like a whirlwind into their house under the pretense of a friendly visit, he had felt a little spark of attraction towards her. Maybe it was the confidence she had that her little sister lacked; or maybe it was the offer to demonstrate some alien martial arts; or maybe it was even her clothes.

And Blackfire herself… At first she had acted as though she was attracted to him. Maybe there was truth in it – but more likely, he supposed, she had merely sensed that Starfire liked him, and had done it out of spite.

Needless to say, his own attraction had quickly waned.

Blackfire, pure and simple, was a bitch.

But at least her schemes always forced him to act. If they could thank Blackfire for anything, it was that. Because of her, Starfire must surely know by now that the attraction wasn't just one-sided.

Beating up twenty Tamaranean guards and interrupting her sham wedding had to count for something, surely…

Or maybe it was their surroundings. On a planet alien to him, maybe he felt more vulnerable, and was therefore more likely to look to her for comfort. After all, she was forever an alien but on Tamaran. But twice (and one of them had been only the day before) the zone of a planet that was unfamiliar to him had drawn him closer. Tamaran, of course, when he had been forced to interrupt her wedding or die trying; but the harsh, red-tinted darkness of a small, far-off satellite planet had threaded their hearts together too.

They'd only gotten back from there yesterday, Starfire radiating an elatedness which was clearly a product of what she had tricked him into saying. Not that he hadn't meant all those things he had said, but… he still felt cheated when he remembered how she had cornered him.

And before that, he had had to experience something most unpleasant – namely the Feminine Cold Shoulder.

Dimly he recalled Bruce, many years ago now, coming home from a date relativity early for him, and minus Selina Kyle, which was unusual in itself, slamming the front door and stalking upstairs, undoing his tie and muttering about "Women"…

Well, he'd been ten years old, which was three years before Barbara, and frankly it had gone over his head. Those three years later he had begun to understand – but now, after being rebuked so icily by Starfire on that planet, he felt like an expert on the subject.

All because of Cyborg and his stupid "girlfriend" comment…

She'd guilted him into saying those things. And they hadn't been the most Shakespearean of words ("Starfire… I think… uh… it's… awesome… the way… you shoot starbolts…") – but she seemed happy enough.

Which… he couldn't understand. He'd cringed inwardly as he'd said those things, because although he meant them, it wasn't exactly romantic poetry…

Then again, maybe he just didn't understand her.

Babs had been tough enough, but Starfire… was an alien princess. Emphasis on "alien".

Emphasis on "princess"; princess implying female.

Maybe he just couldn't understand why she liked him. Why, despite the fact that he often ignored her "advances", she never wavered, never waned. Why all the things he had ever done hadn't earned him a mouthful of starbolts by now.

Because surely it was hard enough for her to understand him as it was, due to their different genders. And then there was the fact that she'd been brought up to act on her emotions, and he'd been brought up to suppress them, because that was what Bruce Wayne did. They were very different people – like day and night, and although it was common to say that opposites attract, maybe all it meant was that, in the long run, it was just never going to work.

After all, Blackfire might have been onto something when she had called him "mysterious" – but how long was Starfire going to go on chasing that mystery? How could she stay close to someone who was never going to let her in?

How could she stay close to someone she could never understand?

"…I really need time to sort out my emotions."

"I'll give you all the time in the world." – Dick and Koriand'r; The New Teen Titans #26 (Marv Wolfman)

Well, she hadn't exactly ended up as a model for an Engrish-sloganed brand of gum, but Starfire was getting her fair share of attention here in Tokyo – namely because the Japanese population loved anything that little bit exotic-looking.

Which was exactly what Starfire was.

"Weather's still bad."

It wasn't a question.

Starfire looked up from the authentic Japanese manga she was engrossed in – her ability to absorb entire languages through lip contact had enabled her, in short, to appreciate Tokyo far more than the rest of the Teen Titans (and had enabled the Boy Wonder to decipher exactly why she had kissed him that first time…). While Raven was stuck with her Super Twinkle Donkey Gum, Starfire could pick up and read anything she wanted. She had bought some manga only that afternoon, unmarred by translation (being in its true language); it seemed to be about, judging by the colorful front cover, a group of teenaged girls in scanty sparkly sailor outfits, all different colors. The girl in the foreground was blonde, in blue.

Blonde. Not red.

"Yes, it would appear so…" Starfire sat upright from where was lying on the wide bed in her hotel room to look out of the window.

The hot, dry weather that had graced their first few days in Japan had vanished completely – perhaps the rain during their final showdown with Daizo had been a warning of the weather to come, but after clearing up briefly for the award ceremony, the heavens had opened and high winds had picked up.

The conditions, as Cyborg had distractedly cited several times by this point, were too dangerous to fly home in. The others agreed, but since they could not really go outside to sightsee, Tokyo had lost its appeal. Even Beast Boy wanted to go home now. Starfire had made a brief brave venture out earlier that day to go shopping – she had been alone in that, for even Raven refused to join her, far more comfortable in her swanky hotel room reading some books she had mercifully brought with her.

In gratitude for the exposure and defeat of Uehara Daizo, Tokyo's government had generously paid for the Titans' temporary residence at one of Tokyo's most expensive and prestigious tourist hotels. They had a room each; and with an arcade, an entire mini food court, a tiny cinema suite, a games room, a gym, a spa, a library and a lounge – among other things – in the hotel itself, there was no real shortage of things to do.

Cyborg and Beast Boy were playing pool in the games room after spending an hour or five in the arcade, Raven was stretched on a couch in the lounge, and the fearless leader himself had just come back up from the gym.

He had, however, planted himself in Starfire's room for the time being.

Perhaps slightly shy of him, she continued to read her manga, watching him out of the corner of her eye as he paced up and down wordlessly, occasionally glancing out of the window. It had taken him ten minutes to speak, and even then, only those three words.

"Storm."

Another word. Starfire counted four. He leaned on the windowsill, pressing his forehead to the steamed glass.

It was dark, relatively late, and Tokyo was lit up the way it was on postcards – through the rain-spattered window it was blurred and melted.

A little like the line between their friendship.

The kiss had changed everything. The kiss in the rain; while they were unprepared, wet, covered in ink. Third time lucky, yes – the first two times they had been prepared for it (steeling themselves against it too), and it had not happened.

Yes, third time lucky indeed.

It didn't matter whether they had been prepared for it or not. The point remained that despite now being "kinda-official-but-kinda-not", they could barely look one another in the eye.

It wasn't shame. It wasn't embarrassment. It was just…

Starfire timidly said his name; and he jumped and turned to her quickly.

"What?" His voice was a little sharp, but she did not seem to mind.

Instead she laid her manga aside and patted the bed.

"You must come sit here with me. We should do… the "talking"…"

"I can hear you from here." He turned his gaze back to the window.

"But I cannot converse with you properly if you stand over there," Starfire replied icily. "And should we not converse correctly, if we are now… the boyfriend and girlfriend…?"

"We're…" He massaged his forehead for a moment or two. "Okay, okay…"

He came to the bed and flopped down on it, sprawling across the width of it. Thoughts of Starfire and that sweet first kiss had wearied him these past few days. Were they "the boyfriend and girlfriend"?

The day of the ceremony in the Teen Titans' honor, she had been stuck to his side like a magnet; clutching his hand most of the day simply because he was obliging to hold it.

But the few days following it… she had not pursued him any further. They stole the odd glance at one another and then looked away again, blushing; over dinner with whole team, over the chessboard in the lounge room.

But now that the magic had worn off, it hadn't made things between them any easier – indeed, it had only made them more difficult. Because there was no longer anywhere to hide – no call to forge obliviousness. He couldn't subtly move his hand when she tried to put hers on top of it, as though he hadn't noticed the advance; she couldn't pretend she was utterly ignorant of the sometimes… suggestive positions they managed to inadvertedly get themselves into while sparring in the gym. No, he could no longer ignore the crestfallen look on her face when her hand met only the table's surface, just as she could no longer feign innocence and ask him what was wrong while he blushed crimson at the fact that he was sprawled on top of her.

She leaned over him, her pretty face concerned.

"You are ill?"

"No." His tone was irritable.

"Then why do you lie on the bed?"

"I just came up from the gym. I'm tired." Which was only a partial lie.

"Oh." She twisted her slender fingers together. "Very well. I, ah…"

"You wanna talk."

"Yes. I… I am concerned."

"About… us."

"Yes." She looked at him earnestly. "You have given thought to this also?"

"A little." He propped himself up on his elbows. "The only conclusion I can come to is that… this is gonna be hard."

"Do you think?" Her jade eyes glistened a little, becoming wet; he sighed deeply and inwardly, hoping she wasn't going to cry. That was something he couldn't deal with right now.

"I know it will. You're talking about a transition from…" He sat up and drew a line on the bedsheets to illustrate his point. "…From friendship to…"

"The boyfriend and girlfriend?"

"Yes." He looked up at her. "I guess so."

"You seem… unhappy…"

"About this?" He saw the danger this time and detoured around it. "No, no, this is… I mean, I'm not unhappy, just… you know, because it is different. It does change things. You have to realize that."

She blinked once, very slowly.

"I do." She leaned in a little closer. "But perhaps I wish for things to change between us. I like you. I like you as more than a friend, R—"

"Yes, but," he interrupted, "you know, if it… things don't always work out, and it's not easy for things to go back to the way they were. That's why it's such a big step, Star."

Her eyes narrowed a little.

"You believe that things will not do the working out between us?"

"No!" Again, his tone was a little sharper than he had intended, and she recoiled a little. Exasperated, he flopped back onto the bed.

Dear god, she was so different to Barbara – and not just because she had longer legs…

"Star, it isn't that, it's just…" He looked up at her. "You can just never plan what's going to happen in the future. It's not us so much as… well, everything else… Things change."

"But surely… the uncertainly only brings people closer together?" She wiped her eyes on the heel of her hand; the beginnings of tears…

"Well…" He sat up again and offered her a small smile. "…You'd think so, wouldn't you?"

She gazed at him hopelessly; more tears forming in the stead of the ones she had wiped away.

"Then… what are we to do?" She asked quietly.

"We… need time. But we…" He hesitated, then took both the plunge and her hand. "…We can try."

She nodded with a tearful smile, and then put both her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.

She was really nothing like Barbara at all.

"And what about her?… The tall one with the green eyes, great tan and legs up to my chin?" – Batgirl; Nightwing: Year One (Scott Beatty and Chuck Dixon)

And he was nothing like Bruce.

Because it meant a lot more; and because he hadn't felt anything.

"I'm… sorry," he said after a long while, looking up at the ceiling.

Starfire, straightening the straps of her pink night gown, looked at him over her shoulder.

"Why should you be sorry?"

"Because that was… really bad." He even managed a small smile. "It was terrible."

"You did… not enjoy it?"

"Star, I'm the one who made it terrible…" He sat up, the bedsheets bunching at his lap. "Painful as that is to admit. Guess it's not as… easy as it looks…"

"But you did not enjoy it?"

He shrugged.

"I didn't hate it, I just… I dunno. It wasn't that great, you know? It wasn't you, it was just… in general."

She looked almost relieved.

"Thank X'hal," she breathed. "I thought that it was just me…"

"Maybe we weren't doing it right." He frowned. "At least, I'm pretty sure I wasn't…"

"Do you think, perhaps… we were not ready…?"

He gave a little shrug.

"I don't know. I felt like… well, we both wanted to…" He looked up at her. "And we're been together for quite a long time now. Tokyo always seems like it was only yesterday, but…"

He trailed off, watching her nod.

"Your first time?" He asked softly.

"Yes."

"Hm." He exhaled deeply. "Me too. Did I… hurt you?"

"A little, at first, but… that is… normal, I think."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

She smiled at him.

"Do not be. Do not be sorry for any of it. It may not have been as… magical as the books and movies suggest, but… it was real."

He leaned his head back on the pillow of her bed and sighed.

"The way Bruce goes through them, you'd think it was as easy as changing the TV channel…"

She paused.

"…Women?"

"Yeah." He smirked a little. "Playboy façade to keep up and all. They don't really mean anything to him, but they all come away satisfied."

"Well…" She reached across to his hand and played with his fingers thoughtfully. "…You are not him."

"No." He looked her in the eyes; and saw himself reflected in the glimmering jade. "I guess I'm not."