Donald Trump has nice hair.

–

Raven turned off the transmission. They were just sleeping in the jungle. Nothing bad seemed to have happened – it just seemed like they were resting. She'd check again later, though, just in case. If they were resting in the middle of the day, then something had kept them awake all night. Speaking of which... Raven looked at the clock. It seemed like a good time for tea. Maybe lunch.

'Starfire might like to go out,' her mind suddenly prodded at her, and instantly, the purple-haired girl felt a pang of guilt. There had been few altercations in town while the guys were away. Slade hadn't sent them anything, but he probably already knew Robin was gone and didn't give a thought to sending the girls and Cyborg any trouble. And Robin wasn't around to take her out, and BeastBoy wasn't around to make her giggle. She was probably dying of boredom, and trying to cook, or some other dangerous activity. Raven flipped up her hood, and went seeking Starfire.

The halls were abnormally quiet. Raven inwardly frowned, stopping at Starfire's doorway. 'She doesn't even have that larva to play with, anymore.'

Tap, tap, tap. Raven knocked sharply three times. Upon no response, she tapped again. There was a loud sigh and then the soft, barely noticeable disruption in the air's electricity that always came with Starfire's flight. The Azarath wondered if anyone else had noticed it as the door opened.

"Starfire!" Raven said, stepping back, and actually raising a hand to her mouth. Boredom had taken its toll. Beyond Starfire, the room was shiny... Too shiny. She'd used so much Pine-Sol, Windex, and paint that the room glowed with an unearthly orange. And Starfire looked stoned out of her mind. The entire room was repainted a glittery pink, and tons of... Stuffed animals, candy, princess toys, and various other five-year old girl things were neatly organized everywhere, and they shone wetly with disinfectant. The alien, herself, was shiny with speckles of paint and cleaning fluids. There was a light padding sound as her toes touched the ground, and she dropped onto the balls of her feet.

"Hallo, friend Rav'n," she drawled lazily, and Raven realized that the television behind the door was playing reruns of "Bonanza" and "Green Acres".

"How'ya? Like ter come in fer a spot of brandy?"

As the lemon-fresh scent of Pine-Sol rolled into her face, Raven's eyes went wide. Stoned and poisoned. Great.

–

The dark woke Robin up. The soreness had faded some, and they had made their way back about an eighth of the way over the past day. But he hadn't carried anything else to eat with them, and they were out of water. Weakness hadn't set in yet, but he could feel hunger gnawing gently at his stomach. Garfield slept quietly next to him, using his chest as a pillow. Robin stayed still, breathing and staring into the night.

There was no way they could make that trip back to camp in a similar time. They were both operating on fatigue. It would take at least three days, and by then, they might be delirious from not drinking any water. They couldn't afford any extra exertion, though. Four days would be a better bet. Robin wondered, slightly admiring their speed and strength from an objective point of view, at the amount of distance they had traveled that day. Fantastic record setting, even though it required so much extra pushing.

Yesterday, he had decided that the best move was to simply pretend this never happened. Well, not all of it, but the frightening running off violently. He'd just take it slow, and figure it out on his own. He'd pay more attention to his team. Especially to Garfield. He glanced at the sleeping figure next to him, and his mind filled in the shadows from memories. The soft, yet angular face. Soft, olive-green skin, and those calm, slightly taunting, moss-colored eyes. The natural radiance of his smile. He felt again a flicker of warmth in his stomach.

Starfire was a fantastic friend, but he'd never held her this comfortably, even at home. There was never a strange, warm, ember-burning feeling in his stomach when he held her, or the nervous tongue-tiedness that he would sometimes get around this young man. He could talk more easily to him, about anything. His words came freely and naturally. Starfire... She couldn't really fully comprehend what he was saying, a lot of the time. He'd noticed that around month two, when he'd overheard her pestering Raven for a fuller explanation on his explanations of 'necessary solitude'. She made him... Well, she made him want to be quiet, he guessed.

There was a sharp, but quiet noise above them. Instinctively, the arm draped over BeastBoy's shoulder contracted and pulled the teen closer. Robin scanned the overstory as well as he could in the darkness. The normal sounds of night were tuning out, and he tried to listen for the other, more threatening thing. He felt it there.

The muddy, black-haired boy froze, and held his breath. His fingers creeped slowly towards his backpack, where his X-tender was. The special rod, identical to his own that he'd used with the Titans, was a fully loaded armory or surprises and tricks. He'd hoped not to have to use it.

The cracking noise happened again, and Robin saw it, briefly in the moonlight.

Although his imagination was generally kept leashed and close for easy handling and rationalizing, the day without water and fatigue let an image of the creature slide into his mind. It was fast – it had taken away moonlight for only one second. It was big– because it had completely eclipsed his view of the moonlight from the overstory. The tail had briefly glinted in the light as it swooped out of vision. Four feet long, give or take a few inches, and bright, glinting scales had covered the tail. He couldn't remember the color. He replayed the moment in his mind. The head was large and triangular, like a snake or a lizard. The mouth had dripped, small droplets of saliva had fallen as it jumped. Flown. The teeth were huge – that's why it had its mouth open.

Robin felt his heart beat harder. Beast Boy stirred under his arm, and he squeezed the younger man. Another snap, and heavy breathing.

The black-haired boy looked around frantically, not moving his head. There was a hot breath on his neck, and he smelled the damp, dour sick breath rolling over his face.

–

Raven held Starfire's hair in a clumsy, messy handful with one hand, the other patting the orange-ish alien's back. Starfire retched again. Raven had given her Soditol to make her empty the contents of her three stomachs, and they seemed to be nearing the end of the cleaning supplies, because real food was coming out now.

"Rough night in the saloon, pard'ner?" Raven asked, sardonic.

Starfire wiped her mouth with a clean, warm, wet towel. "Yes'm," she said, the stoned look on her face slowly disappearing. "The aftermath is quite horrid."

"I can tell. You need a shower and some tea," Raven said, as the taller teen stood straight, wobbling some. "My special blend should sober you up, and help your stomach."

Starfire just nodded, and Raven helped her to the bathroom. The girl couldn't even walk in a straight line. But, Raven was confident that she'd eradicated most of the toxins from her system. The Tamaranian's strong alien nature could do the rest. Starfire sat on the toilet, and Raven felt another pang of guilt for letting her get so bored that she went on a cleaning binge. She looked half-stoned, half-dead, and one hundred percent dismal and pathetic. Raven leaned over the tub, and turned on the water.

Because of a picky Raven, the bathroom in the girls' wing had been redone completely. By Raven. The shower was on one side, and a large, modernized tub was on the other of the bedroom-sized bathroom. The tub was almost like a hot tub in depth and shape, and she'd even put in a seat so it could double as one. As it slowly filled, she pressed a button, and pink bubbles appeared in the water, softly scented like flowers. When it got about halfway full of water, she turned some jets onto low power.

"I'm just going to go into the kitchen and make you some tea," the dark-haired girl said, turning, "you just- Hey, let's be decent, now!"

Starfire had stripped down to her underthings, and stared at Raven almost sadly. Raven was glad her hood was up. Her emotions were zinging around like fireflies in her head because of all that had happened lately, and with zero meditation, it was starting to confuse her.

"Am I not pretty enough?" Starfire asked morosely, finishing her job. "I think Robin thinks that I am not."

Raven looked at the shower and concentrated on it. A pump-bottle of hand soap exploded, splattering the Tamaranian in yellow-orange goo.

"You're very pretty, Starfire," Raven said, as calmly as she might've. "Maybe we can go to the mall later, and scope out some cute... Boys, and uh, you'll forget all about Robin for a little while, okay? We'll play some games, get some lunch, and get some eye candy. Sound good?"

Raven was aware of the heat in front of her, and hands on her shoulders. The bar soap on the counter made a loud 'ploomf' as it exploded, and soft, claylike lumps spattered everywhere.

"That sounds lovely, Raven, but first, we have to get clean," Starfire said, and Raven was shocked at the feral, seething lust in that voice. The towel rack started spinning violently, yanking at its foundations as the Tamaranian pushed Raven into the water.

–

...Uh... Huh.

Hope it's improved!