A/N
Hey my lovely readers! I'd like to start off by thanking everyone who has reviewed this story so far! I appreciate everything you've told me and I can't wait to read more reviews! Secondly I'd like to thank everyone who has chosen to read this story because it makes me feel like I'm not talking to myself out here in the great big internet! (But really thank you!) I hope this update came soon enough for you all. I'm trying to focus on two or three people every chapter but every now and then and I feel like I have to throw in something from another character… I'm slowly trying to move in some romance between my designated pairings and I think that will show a bit in this chapter. I'm not very good at making things move fast in that aspect though so I apologize if it takes a while (please don't hate me!) Alright now get to reading you wonderful people!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans or anything affiliated with them (but I wish I did).
"Can I meet you on the roof in an hour Star? I'd like to do some training."
"Most certainly friend Robin!" Starfire beamed at the invitation of being alone with Robin. Not quite sure what else to do since she finished her meal, she decided to join Cyborg in watching TV. She didn't stay long however as her thoughts were elsewhere. Starfire decided to head back to her room for a bit before having to meet with Robin.
Once inside her room the alien princess flopped onto her bed and had trouble controlling her smile. Getting time alone with Robin was something she constantly looked forward to. Perhaps Robin also enjoyed being alone with her? She quickly shook the thought from her head, she knew Robin only thought of her has a friend and teammate, and not as anything more… Starfire sighed audibly and stood up from her bed. As soon as she got up a knock came at her door.
"Star? Are you ready to train?" The smile found its way back to her face as she opened the door. It was weird seeing herself in a mask, she'd only put on one of Robin's masks once when he was away training. Seeing the mask reminded her though of the quick glimpse of those eyes hiding behind the mask. She wanted to hold onto that memory forever, as Robin was very protective of his identity and she'd always been curious of what his eyes looked liked. The memory wasn't very complete however as she'd only seen them for a short moment, all she could remember was they were blue…
Robin opened the door that lead to the roof and walked out. It was weird standing behind him as she'd never noticed how much taller she was than Robin. She definitely wasn't used to having to look up at someone. Robin stopped in the center of the roof and turned around to face her.
"I suppose we don't have much to learn since I don't have powers… but I'm… um… definitely interested in learning about yours." Robin nervously rubbed the back of his neck and Starfire couldn't help but smile at the gesture.
"My powers are similar to that of friend Raven's for they are also driven by emotion. To fly you must feel the joy of flying and unbridled joy. To use my starbolts you must feel righteous fury and for the strength you must feel boundless confidence! Perhaps you would like to try the starbolts first?" Starfire didn't add that she felt it would be easy for Robin to feel fury and confidence. Robin nodded and turned to face one of the walls. A look of concentration crossed his face which he often got in battle. He appeared to be focusing for a moment before he balled his hands into fists and green balls of energy flickered around his hands a few times before going out. "Very good, friend Robin! You should try to hit something now, possibly one of the training dummies?" Starfire indicated one of the tree football styled dummies that rested on the roof near the basketball court.
"Alright." Robin concentrated again and after a few seconds the green energy orbs formed around his hands. He thrust both of his hands out and launched two starbolts at the dummies; one was overshot by a couple feet, the other a bit closer but still a miss. Nevertheless Starfire jumped and clapped for Robin in support.
"Wondrous job friend Robin! The aiming will take time, but I am thrilled you are happy to produce starbolts!" Robin attempted a smile in her direction but Starfire could tell he wasn't as pleased with himself. "Perhaps we shall move on to the strength?"
"You said I have to feel confident for this one? That shouldn't be too hard…" Robin made his way over to wear the large metal grill was on the roof. "Feel confident. Feel confident." Robin was muttering to himself as he bent down and readied himself to pick up the grill. With a little too much force he hefted the grill up and ended up throwing it across the roof. "Oh that was a lot easier than I was expecting…" Robin walked over to where the grill had landed and picked it up with one hand and held it above his head. "Okay, I could get used to this."
"Would you like to try the flying now?"
"Yeah, that should be exciting; I've never flown on my own before."
"It truly is wondrous friend Robin. You must fill yourself with joy and feel the greatness of flying." Robin stood with his feet apart and looked up into the sky. After a few moments he tried jumping up but still was not able to get into the air.
"It's hard to think of the joy of flying when I don't have any experience…" Robin admitted.
"Perhaps you could think of the times when we have flown together?" Starfire could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks after making such a bold statement and was glad that she had a mask on. Robin looked at her for a moment before looking back up and after a few seconds he began to float up into the air. Realizing he was now in the air, a smile flashed on his face and he shot upward into the sky, mimicking the way Starfire flies. The alien girl watched as he shot across the sky, he was shouting and whooping with excitement and Starfire couldn't help but want to be up there with him. She decided to sit down on the roof and watch as Robin flew around with excitement. Robin hovered down in the air in front of Star for a moment.
"Star, this is amazing!" Robin twirled in the air which was surprising for Starfire to see. "Star do you wanna… um, I mean… do you want to fly… with me?" Robin said the last part quietly and Starfire almost didn't hear him say it. "I mean, you've always given me rides, maybe it should be the other way for a change?" Robin held out his hand for Starfire to take. With a smile she stood and clasped her hand with his. He lifted the two of them up into the air and began to fly out over the water. It was a very different feeling not being the one actually doing the flying and it was actually a bit exhilarating. Robin reached down and put his arm under her legs and then moved his other hand behind her back to make it easier to carry her. Starfire risked a glance at Robin who was focused on the sky in front of him. It was weird to be technically looking at her own face and Star couldn't help but wish she could see his eyes again. "Alright, coming in for a landing." Robin slowed them down in the air and slowly came to a stop on the roof. Once he had landed he put Starfire down as well.
"I feel that was a successful training session, no?"
"We haven't trained you yet though?" Robin asked.
"Well, I assumed that as you do not have any powers I did not need the training."
"You have to be able to fight without powers though; maybe I should teach you some basic martial arts maneuvers just to be safe."
"Friend Robin you need not worry, I was trained in various forms of combat on my home planet of Tamaran. I can fight well without the use of my powers." Starfire felt Robin thought she was useless without her powers; however she didn't want to voice this and so kept it to herself. There was a moment of silence between the two when Cyborg burst through the door to the roof.
"Dinner is ready ya'll!" He quickly disappeared after the announcement and Starfire and Robin made their way inside as well. Once in the common room Starfire saw Cyborg had ordered pizzas for all of them. Raven and Beastboy were already sitting at the table eating their choice of pizzas. After everyone settled down into their chairs and grabbed their food Robin spoke up.
"How did training go for everyone?" Robin was primarily addressing Raven and Beastboy as Cyborg didn't have to learn to use new powers.
"Pretty good dude, Raven's got some weird powers but turns out I'm smart enough to use 'em." A large grin crossed Beastboy's face, or rather Raven's face, which was weird to see as the empathy rarely smiled.
"It went well." As usual Raven didn't have much to say on the topic and so Robin went back to eating.
"I think everyone should take it easy for the rest of the night and I'll pick up my research tomorrow. I doubt Mumbo would show himself this soon after getting defeated."
After finishing her food and brewing a cup of tea for herself Raven decided to call it a night and head back to her room. It had been an interesting day for her to say the least. After switching bodies with Beastboy and having to teach how to use some of her powers she was actually pretty worn out. She thought back to her and Beastboy's training session. It had actually gone better than she'd expected what with the Changeling not making as many annoying remarks. She was surprised by how fast he caught on to her powers as well, they definitely weren't the easiest to use. She recalled the time Starfire and her had switched bodies back when they fought the Puppet King. It was such a long time ago she'd almost forgotten about it. The Tamaranian girl had figured out the basics of Raven's powers fairly quickly, much quicker than Beastboy. Of course they had been in a much direr situation at the time too.
Raven sat down her bed and once again the dirty feeling came back to her. She definitely felt like she smelled a bit too and didn't think she could last much longer feeling like this. Sighing, she decided it couldn't hurt to take a bath. It would definitely help her calm down and make her feel less gross than she did now. Without thinking she grabbed a towel and uniform from her closet and made her way to the bathroom. Once she got in there though, she remembered the situation she was in. There was no way she could take a bath in Beastboy's body. She definitely wasn't going to change into one of her uniforms after the fact either.
After a moment of thinking an idea came to her mind. Maybe she could borrow one of Beastboy's swim trunks and bathe in that? She could just change with her eyes closed and then everything would be alright. It's not like she hadn't seen him in a bathing suit anyways; she recalled one of the times Starfire had dragged them all to the beach. Satisfied with her idea, she left the bathroom and went to Beastboy's room. She knocked lightly on his door and waited for an answer, although she wasn't entirely sure he was in his room at the moment. To her surprise Beastboy did answer the door and looked just as surprised to see her.
"What's up Rae?"
"I need to borrow one of your bathing suits." Beastboy stared at her for moment, thinking he might have misheard her.
"What?" Raven sighed audibly.
"I feel disgusting in this body and well, I thought it wouldn't hurt to take a bath." Raven blushed slightly at how this all might sound. "For your decency and my sanity I thought it would make sense to wear your swim trunks to take one." Beastboy stared at her a few moments longer, apparently let his mind process everything she had said.
"Oh that makes sense!" His characteristic smile returned to his face, although a bit uncharacteristic on Ravens, and he turned to find a pair of swim trunks. He was back at the door a moment later with a pair of solid purple shorts which had a black waistband. "Here ya go!" Raven made no attempt to move however as she took the shorts.
"Could I also have… a… clean uniform?" It was weird for her to be asking for all these things from him and she definitely wasn't comfortable asking anything of him at all.
"Yeah, I'm sure I have one around here somewhere." The Changeling made his way back into the filthy room and started rummaging through his dresser. After tossing a few shirts on the ground he pulled out a uniform top and pants. "There we go!" He handed Raven the clothes and waited for her to say anything else.
"Um… thanks." Raven turned and headed back to the bathroom. Once inside she set the clothes on the counter and started the bath, then looked at herself in the mirror. This wasn't that weird, was it? She took a deep breath, attempting to build up her confidence, and took off the shoes first. She fumbled a bit with the strange belt he always wore and then removed the gloves. Taking a deep breath again she remove the top of the uniform. "This is totally weird" she decided. Turning away from the mirror she removed the pants and then decided to close her eyes as she removed his boxers too. "This is incredibly weird." She quickly pulled on the swim trunks and opened her eyes. "Okay that wasn't too bad."
The bath was almost completely full so she decided to get in. It was strange to see green hands instead of her usual pale. She took a few slow breaths to calm herself down and decided to relax a bit. This wasn't too bad as long as she didn't think about it too much. After a few minutes of deep breathing and relaxing Raven got an idea. Wouldn't this be a perfect time to try out this new power she now possessed? Raven focused on being a goldfish and soon she was shrinking down drastically to the size of the fish.
The transformation process was a weird one that must take some getting used to. As she transformed she could feel her body changing and rearranging itself. Her bones becoming smaller, eyes moving to the side of her head, gills spouting at her neck, and scales appearing from her skin. It all happened very quickly so it was nothing more than a tickling feeling but she could definitely sense it. As a small goldfish she swam around in the water for a bit. Everything seemed so much bigger to her now and it was odd to be breathing underwater.
After swimming a few laps she focused this time on becoming a crocodile. She figured she'd better work on becoming bigger animals than a kitten or fish if she wanted to be good in battle. The transformation seemed to take a bit longer this time but soon she was 10 foot longer croc. Her tail stuck its way out of the tub and across the bathroom while her nose poked out the other end. It was not the most comfortable position that's for sure. Deciding she couldn't do much in this form she decided to change back into herself, or rather back into Beastboy.
Back in human form she decided she should probably be done soon. She leaned back and dunked her head under the water for a few seconds and then resurfaced. She hadn't thought to bring and shampoo so she would just have to leave his hair the way it was. She emerged from the tub and quickly dried off. Once again she closed her eyes tightly as she pulled on the boxers and shorts, careful to make sure her hands didn't come in contact with anything but the clothes.
Reopening her eyes she looked at herself in the mirror again. She didn't feel comfortable being in this body and she definitely wasn't used to being this up-close to it. Nevertheless, she was still a bit curious. She looked the body up and down with her eyes. She didn't understand how anyone could get used to be green all the time. It was almost like someone had painted this color on her but it wouldn't come off. She leaned in close to the mirror to examine the face. She was instantly draw to the pointy ears on the side of her head. They reminded her of an elf and that thought made her smile a bit; Beastboy was rather elfish. She poked at the one fang that constantly stuck out of his mouth, it was surprisingly sharp.
Seeing all of his animal-like features made her wonder more about how he became like this. He mentioned earlier about not being born with his powers and she had to admit that she was genuinely curious about it all. From what she knew Starfire had been born with her powers just like her and so it was odd to think someone on the team wasn't. She made a mental note to try to get more out of him tomorrow. She sighed at the thought of her wanting to talk to the Changeling, this switch was doing weird things to her mind.
Robin found himself sitting at the computer in the crime lab once again. He had been checking various security cameras around town hoping to get some clue as to where Mumbo would be hiding. After a few more images flashed by he decided it was no use, it was too soon. Stretching as he stood, he checked the clock on the wall to see it was already after 11. After dinner he had come down here for a while, then went back up to the common room to watch TV, but found himself in the crime lab again. He just couldn't get his mind off the subject even though he knew there wasn't much he could do at the moment. He made his way back to the top floor of the tower and quietly walked down the hallways as he assumed everyone else had gone to bed already. He stopped when he reached his door but instead of going in he turned and made his way to the roof. He knew he wasn't going to be able to sleep just yet and decided he could do a late night patrol of the city.
On the roof he walked to the edge and looked across the bay. He hadn't gone out at night for a patrol since his days with Batman yet he felt the need for it tonight. About to reach for his grapple Robin stopped as he remembered the switch. A strange smile crossed his face as he realized he would be able to fly for once. He recalled the training session earlier and how much he had enjoyed flying… especially with Starfire… Robin shook the last thought from his head, she was just a friend to him.
He stood on the edge of the roof thinking of flying earlier and soon he was floating off the edge. Now in the air, he positioned himself parallel to the ground and headed toward the city at a remarkable pace. He slowed down a bit once he crossed the bay however, and flew just low enough that he would have a good view of the ground below. He spent the next hour searching up and down streets and alleyways for something, anything unusual but came up empty handed. Deciding he might as well head back he turned around and started towards the tower. As he was passing a small alley however he heard a scream.
He quickly turned around in the air and flew into the alley. He stuck close to the wall so as not to be seen right away. When he got close he saw a man with a small knife in his hand cornering a woman who was clutching her purse in front of her face.
"Please don't hurt me! I… I have a family!"
"You think I really care about that lady?" The man moved closer to the woman and Robin knew it was time to act. He shot down directly onto the man and pinned him to the ground. His vision suddenly got a green tint to it and green energy was forming around his hands. He struck the man with his fists, the energy in his hands adding a little extra bite to the punch. Who did this man think he was, preying on this poor woman? The attack reminded him of his days in Gotham where things like this happened nearly every night and in several alleyways. In Jump City it was a lot rarer though, and it was criminals like this that really infuriated him. The kind with no greater motive other than picking on the weak.
After a few more punches Robin pulled the man up by his shirt collar and pinned him to the wall. He was bleeding from the mouth and his eye was swollen. He had scorch marks on his face from the starbolts that had formed in Robin's hands as well.
"Jeez, aren't you supposed to be the nice one?" The man turned his head and spat on the ground. Robin allowed himself one more punch to the gut before he hefted the criminal into the air and flew him to the police station. In his current situation Robin decided to take a page from his former mentor's book and not get directly involved with the police for this matter. Landing in front of the police station Robin ripped a light pole from the ground and bent it around the man from the alley, tying him up. He left the man sitting outside of the police station and decided to check back in the alley. Within a few seconds he was back to see the woman slowly walking out.
"Are you alright, ma'am?" The woman gave him a weird look, it obviously didn't sound right to have Robin's voice coming out of Starfire's body. "There's been a mix up." He explained.
"Yes, I… I think I'll be alright. Thank you." The woman offered a half smile before turning and walking down the street. Robin watched her until she rounded the corner and disappeared from his view. He figured he should probably make his way back to the tower for real this time. He flew up into the sky and made his way back to the tower, not flying as fast as he could but still making good time. He definitely could get used to having powers. His tools and fighting abilities had never failed him before, but there was something almost easier about having powers to aid himself in battle. It was selfish to think that way however, Robin couldn't imagine how Starfire was managing being stripped of all her powers. She'd always had them that he knew of and she depended on them for protecting the city. He could only hope that this all got sorted out soon for her sake and for everyone's sake.
Robin landed on the roof a few minutes later. He made his way into the tower as quietly as he could and headed down the hall to his room. He was about to arrive at his door when he heard a sound. Turning around he noticed Starfire's door opening. She looked tired but she wondered out of her room and made her way to where he was standing.
"Robin? What is it you are doing out of the bed?" Robin noticed she wasn't wearing his mask and he could see her tired but still large, emerald eyes looking up at him.
"I could ask you the same thing."
"I awoke because I had heard the footsteps outside of my room."
"I was on the roof, just doing some thinking and I'm going to bed now."
"How long have you been out there friend Robin? It is now after 1 at night." Robin hadn't realized so much time had passed. He left around 11:30 so he'd been out for over an hour at least. Her eyes widened in shock suddenly. "Friend Robin, you are hurt!"
"What?" Starfire grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the bathroom. She turned the light on and Robin got a chance to see himself in the mirror. He had a surprisingly large cut on his cheek-on Starfire's cheek. The guy he'd found in the alley must have cut him with his knife and Robin hadn't even noticed from the adrenaline. Starfire had gathered a washcloth and hydrogen peroxide. She immediately started to dap at the cut with the peroxide and Robin flinched from the stinging on his cheek.
"I am sorry, I do not mean to hurt you more." Robin saw the worried look on Starfire's face now.
"No you're fine Star, it just stings a little." Starfire, a bit apprehensive, continued to clean the wound. She had a determined look on her face now and it was scary how much it looked like him.
"There." She removed the washcloth from his face and set it on the counter. "I suspect you were not just sitting on the roof." Robin figured this was coming.
"No… I thought maybe I'd check around the city for any signs of Mumbo. I ran into a common thug and he cut me."
"And you did not think to tell any of us? What if you had been in the real danger?" Starfire looked almost angry now, but the concerned kind of angry.
"I'm fine Star, you don't need to worry." Robin didn't like the idea of her getting upset over this, he was fine so there was no harm done.
"If that is what you believe. I think I will go back to bed now." Starfire left the bathroom leaving Robin alone. He didn't understand why she cared so much about what he was doing. Honestly, it wasn't the first time he'd gone off at night anyways. He was just trying to get a lead on this issue, it was all in the interest of the team. Frowning, Robin made his way back to his room. He removed the boots and arm bands but decided it was the best option to sleep in Star's uniform. He crashed almost as soon as his head touched the pillow.
A/N
Whew, that's it so far! I struggled a bit with this chapter trying to extend the Robin and Starfire parts, her powers were a lot less complicated to explain and Robin doesn't have any so there wasn't much to do in that aspect. Something came to my attention as I was writing this though and I thought I'd share it with you all. What if they have to use the bathroom? They are trying their best not to overstep the decency of their teammates but well, everyone knows how boys use the bathroom and there's really no way to avoid that one! I wanted to write something on that in here but I honestly couldn't get myself to do that! SO for the sake of the story I'm just going to pretend Titans don't use the bathroom… You can decided how they would go about it on your time! Alright, hope to see you all soon in the next chapter! I'm thinking we're due for a fight scene soon! ;)
