"Owwwwwie! Ow…Ow….Owwww…"

"Hold still…," I drone. I try to position my magic aura over Starfire's hand, but the Tamaranian girl twitches and cringes so much that it is next to impossible for me to position my finger over hers. "If you keep moving, I can't heal it."

"I am most apologetic," Starfire murmurs, interchangeably biting her lips with separate rows of teeth. "I am not the most fond of pain."

"Starfire, it's a papercut for goodness' sake…."

Starfire clenches the edge of a desk in the Main Room while she wills her 'injured' finger towards my healing embrace. "I am quite aware of the infinitesimal nature of my wound. But I do believe Beast Boy was accurate when he said 'even the smallest things sting like a female dog'."

"You two…I swear….you overexagerrate."

"On Tamaran, we have no need for tiny hair-thin parchments with a proclivity to minutely slice the epidermal layer of skin. Paper products have been replaced with data pads complete with every volume of Tamaranian poetry known to our people."

"Every volume of your poetry, huh?" I utter as I enclose my glowing palm around her finger finally. "That must involve a lot of memory space."

"Truly? When I was a young Tamaran'ling, I ravenously consumed four volumes of the Epic of Fiml'orp. A mere seventeen thousand stanzas. Hardly voluminous. I was quite behind in my studies at the time."

"Uh……….I understand, Starfire…."

I remove my hand from her finger, turn the digit over, and smile ever so slightly. "There. All done."

Starfire examines her amber appendage. "Raven, we are truly blessed with your healing touch. I do hope you are aware of our gratitude."

"Don't mention it," I murmur. "In fact, don't touch at all. I was in the middle of making tea."

She talks anyways: "I am sorry for making a precipice out of a gopher. But the cuts of paper that this planet Earth seems to be full of are extravagantly torturous."

I shake my head and sigh. "I'll never understand it, Starfire."

"Understand what, Raven?"

I gaze at her and gesture with a gentle hand. "You're the second most durable member of our team. You take beatings constantly and manage to weather the forces assaulting you with your Tamaranian strength. You survive bullets, brick walls, grenades, and propelled rockets. But papercuts send you squealing? I fail to understand how you could suddenly be so victimized by such little pain."

"It is not my intention to be the most….sensitive member of our team," Starfire utters with an embarrassed rosiness to her already rosy cheeks. For being the brunt of so many villainous attacks of force, I find it all the more precious to adore moments when I am not experiencing pain. Something so minimal as a cut from paper interrupts the bliss of a calm lull liken unto that which we are experiencing now. And I suppose I find that……f-frustrating…."

I bite my lip. "I'm sorry, Starfire. I had no idea it was all so painful to you…."

"Indeed…," she then smiles softly at me. "Pain is relative, though."

My eyes go soft. And I can't help but inhale.

Yeah…

Pain is relative.

Wree! Wree! Wree!

Starfire gasps and flashes her green eyes towards the computer screen. "Trouble!"

I run up to the console. Starfire flies up behind me. I type in a flurry on the keyboard and bring up an outline of the City. "It's Cinderblock….Cinderblock and Overload."

"The two of them…," Starfire murmurs. "What nefarious purpose could bring forth their coupling?"

"They're advancing on the military compound just west of town. The Army may be their target. They'd need to double their forces to so much as cross the outer fence of the site. This is bad. I'll contact the others."

Starfire bites her lip. She is rubbing her finger absent mindedly…gazing at the profiles of the metaphysical fiends.

"……..," I look at her. I place a hand on her shoulder.

She looks at me, unhindered by the flashing alarm lights all around us.

"Stick by me and my force fields this time…," I tell her. "I promise….you've had all the pain you'll need to have today…."

"……," she smiles gently. "That sounds….acceptable."

"Come on!" I urge her with me as I dash towards the elevator.

And somewhere in the spinning of the walls and elevator doors I see her flickering hair like a spurt of blood from a deep cut and sooner than naught her voice is entreating Robin and Terra from beyond the hallways to join our charge and it burns the most to think that the heat of her desperation is fueled by the fire of my voice to begin with.

And it stings. In a good way.

Tonight, I sweat a lot during the battle. I sweat a lot, and I take a long shower in the evening before going to bed.