A/N- I've had a number of people ask me if, at the end of the last chapter, Richard actually said "You know exactly what I'm talking about… don't you, Starfire?" or did he just think that. The answer is: YES HE SAID THAT. Hope that clears it up for everyone :) Oh, and thanks for all the reviews!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans, Batman or any quotes included in this fanfic.

Chapter 6

"You don't marry someone you can live with—you marry the person who you cannot live without."
—Anonymous

"You know exactly what I'm talking about… don't you, Starfire?"

"I-I'm sorry?" Kori stuttered, completely shocked and caught off guard. "Who are you? How…?" Still in mid-sentence, her voice sounded strange even to her, almost as if she was hearing someone else speak, from afar.

"Starfire. Don't you know who I am?" Richard smiled, a genuine smile that reached his eyes. His eyes…

At last, her disbelieving brain managed to comprehend everything that had just unravelled before her eyes. "…Robin?" she ventured. I do not see or hear from him in nine years, and now… twice in 24 hours? Kori thought incredulously.

And then, all the doubt fell away, as Kori looked up into his eyes. All those striking similarities she had noticed between Richard and Robin… they had been more than just similarities. This just confirmed all of her suspicions. Richard's smile became Robin's smile; his face became Robin's face—and as their two identities blended together and merged into one, Kori found herself staring, once more, into Robin's eyes… eyes which she had only seen once before. Just once, he had allowed her access to his hidden world, his innermost secrets. But now...

Now… she found herself lost in them once again. No one that Kori knew had the same eyes as Robin. They were unique; they were everything that defined him, exactly as she remembered: the deepest shade of blue—mysterious, magical, yet electrifying at the same time. Gazing into Robin's eyes reminded Kori of the ocean: calm, deep sapphire one moment; then tempestuous, stormy blue-grey the next. Now, however, they appeared serene and gentle, yet with a bright spark of playfulness and happiness hidden just beneath the calm surface.

"I wanted this meeting to be special. For both of us," Richard smirked. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before... I hope you're not mad at me?"

"Oh, Robin! I do not think I could ever be angry with you." Then she launched herself into his outstretched arms. They held each other tightly, revelling in each other's embrace, both too emotional to say anything. All those feelings they had harboured for so long... all those feelings could finally be unleashed. After nine years of separation, Kori couldn't believe that he was back, that he was really here. She had missed him so much; everything about him had changed and yet was still the same: the warmth of his strong, muscular body, the soft spikes of ebony hair, and the scent of his skin, veiled beneath the fragrance of perfume.

Richard couldn't help noticing, a few minutes later when they finally let go, how perfectly she fit in his arms, and the empty space she left unfilled, like a hole in his heart. Perhaps he had missed her even more than he had admitted to himself.

A wave of emotions had engulfed Kori, and she began pouring out all the questions and emotions she had concealed, feelings flowing too quickly and freely for her mouth to form coherent sentences. "Oh, Robin… Richard… after you left, the Titans disbanded… we lost touch with you. Nine years… do you know how worried we were—do you know how worried I was? Where did you go? Why did you go? What did you do? Did you not think of at least informing us of your whereabouts? X'hal, Robin, I had feared you were… gone forever…" she shook her head. "Cyborg, Beast Boy, Raven and I still remain very good friends but you… oh, Robin. You never came back…"

"Until now," he finished for her.

"I loved you," she whispered fiercely. "I have always loved you. You know that. I… I still love you now. Why did you leave? I waited nine years in hope that you would return to us... to me. And all this time… Why? Why did you go? Why could you not even say goodbye?"

Robin closed his eyes, sighing. "I… don't know. Maybe I couldn't. Maybe it hurt too much..." He glanced around uneasily. "Look, Star, what I told you for the interview… it wasn't the truth. They're not supposed to know what really happened."

"Will you tell me, Robin? You know you can tell me anything," Kori said softly, pleadingly. With the back of her hand, she wiped away an unbidden tear. Surprisingly, her make-up still remained perfectly intact.

Richard opened his eyes. She was right; if there was anyone he could spill all his secrets to, anyone he could relay all his troubles to, anyone who could comfort him no matter what the situation… it was Starfire. So, at length, he relented.

"All right…" he began wearily, "Batman summoned me to Gotham. I was sworn to secrecy; he said I wasn't allowed to tell you guys, and I knew better than to question him. I only found out long afterwards that he wanted me to stay in Gotham. I would finish my studies and all, and then... become the new Batman, I suppose. Someone else would become Robin—some kid called Jason, I think. Anyway, I was needed to carry on the Batman mantle; some legacy that was supposed to live on forever. Bruce was getting old, but someone had to wear the suit, still. Someone had to go out every night and fight for the people who couldn't fight for themselves. I don't think I was the only person he trusted... I was just the only person qualified for the job.

"I didn't figure out until too late that he never meant for me to return to Jump City. All the time… he was hinting at it, and I just never noticed. He mentioned that my entire life was building up to something worthwhile. I guess I just… didn't realise what it was. If he'd told me that before, I would have backed out of the deal. And he knew it. So he kept my suspicions at bay, feeding me lies I came to believe. All the time, I was fighting simply because I thought that the harder I tried, the sooner he'd let me go home. But… I was wrong. Five years is a long time, Star. That's how long he trained me for. By then, Batman had arranged for me to inherit his company, inherit the Batman mantle and everything… then he told me some years later that I wasn't allowed to see you—and the others—ever again, or even to tell you where I was and what I was doing. That's when I decided it was too much."

Kori's eyes were wide open in shock. It was hard to accept everything she had just heard; hard to believe that Robin had reappeared just as quickly and abruptly as he had disappeared. "So—you left Gotham?"

"Yeah." His voice was strangely bitter. "I owe Bruce my life, and everything he's given to me… But taking my friends away? Taking you away… I told him that was pushing it one step too far. I'd tolerated his deals for long enough. I didn't want a penny of his money; I said he could give it all away to charity, see if I cared. And I certainly didn't want to become like him. He told me I was making the biggest mistake of my life… and I told him the biggest mistake of my life was leaving you. I wasn't going to turn into another Batman. I wanted to live my own life. And I remembered something you once said to me, Star."

Flashback

"Then… you do not love me, Robin?" Starfire asked, a pained look crossing into her wide, emerald eyes.

"Of course I do, Starfire. You're the most caring, the bravest, the strongest and the most beautiful girl I've ever met. But that's exactly why I can't be with you. I love you with a fire, a passion that scares even me. Whenever I'm with you, I start to lose all control, and I can't let that happen. Oh god, Starfire. It scares me to death, to think of what will happen if I let my feelings go… but I can't not love you either. It's tearing me apart… I would give everything, throw everything away, just to be with you, but I can't do that and be a hero at the same time. I know I've hurt you before when I was trying to do both at the same time, and I regret everything I ever did to hurt you. It's killing me inside. I'm sorry, I really, really am. I don't want to hurt you anymore, but it seems that every time I try to tell you how I really feel, the superhero side wins over."

Her expression was deeply pained. "But you are expressing what you feel now, are you not?"

"…Yeah. Yeah, I guess."

"Then why can we not be together? Is it not what we both desire?"

Starfire's words sent shivers up and down Robin's spine. What they both desired… it seemed so tantalisingly close, as if he could just reach out and touch it... but when he tried… it played just out of his reach. "You have to understand, Star—you wouldn't be safe, you'd be used against me! Do you think I could live with that? Do you think I'd be able to live, if anything happened to you, knowing I was to blame? Do you honestly think that I could stand to lose the person I love the most and my best friend and a team-mate at the same time?"

He sighed, "I don't want to be Robin forever… I just want to be myself. And whenever I'm with you, I can actually be myself. Not the Robin that everyone else knows. That Robin seems like a stranger most of the time. I don't even know who Robin is anymore! I know I should do the right thing… but it's not what I want. And it's not what you want either, is it?"

Starfire stared helplessly at him. He looked so… so vulnerable. This was the Robin no one had ever seen before… not even herself. She realised then that even though she was his closest friend, there was still many things he'd kept secret from her. He had endured more hardships than she could possibly imagine; his childhood stolen from him. She wished to comfort him, but he wasn't letting her. All she could do was gently squeeze his hand, held tightly in hers, hoping to express what words could not.

"Robin… 'Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away'," she quoted quietly.

"You always take my breath away, Starfire," Robin whispered, bowing his head. His voice was filled with untold emotions—love, sadness, longing and… the bitterness of regret. "And that's exactly why I can't be with you."

End Flashback

"I thought of you every day in those nine years, Starfire," he said quietly. "I remembered every moment we spent together. Every talk we ever had. I never stopped thinking about you… and I never stopped thinking about all that time I wasted. It took me nine years to realise that." Kori didn't say anything, so Richard took it as a cue to continue:

"We eventually came to an agreement. I couldn't bring myself to sever all my ties with Bruce, not after all he's given to me whether I liked it or not. I do owe the man more than just my life. I couldn't believe it at first, but I think he regards me as the son he never had. And I guess he just wanted me to find happiness—something he never had.

"So I'm not going to make the same mistake of leaving you again," Richard concluded decisively. "That's why I came back—for you, Star. I was wrong before. Yes, you still take my breath away, now more than ever before, but that doesn't mean I can't be with you. In fact, if anything, those nine years have just strengthened what I've always believed since the day I met you: I love you, Starfire, in every sense of the word. And I don't want to have to live a life without you."

"Then you will not have to," Kori replied firmly. "I won't let you."

"I know. And I don't intend to lose you again." He smiled warmly. Taking her hands in his, he extracted a small velvet red box from his pocket. As he snapped open the lid, a gasp escaped Kori's lips. Inside the box lay a breathtaking platinum-banded ring set with a single, sparkling diamond solitaire.

A/N- Did anyone think it was confusing, how I kept switching between names (Robin/Richard and Starfire/Kori)? To be honest, I don't like this chapter. It was the hardest chapter to write out of the entire story, and I don't think it's written very well. In fact, I don't think it's written very well at all. Was I too mean to Bruce? Did Richard/Robin's story make sense? Review, please, folks.