I told you another one would be up quickly! Once again, many thanks to Seraephina for the quick beta stuff, or else you probably couldn't read it. Now, off to read, there's nothing else to see here! Go on, shoo!

Disclaimer: If I owned the Titans, I would recruit Rab to my team (among others) and we would answer all the unanswered questions, show all the unseen scenes.

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39. Cold

Starfire didn't get cold. It was like a law of the universe. It was something that couldn't be changed or reversed no matter how hard someone tried. It was a characteristic; Beast Boy told jokes, Robin was a workaholic, and Starfire didn't get cold. But it was more than that, too. And it became such a part of their daily lives that eventually they didn't think about it anymore; it just was. Starfire had red hair, Starfire was tall, Starfire didn't get cold. There wasn't really any other way of describing the fact.

During the winter in Jump City, this wasn't really much to think about. If it snowed, it rarely ever stayed on the ground, and no heavy snow coats or boots were needed. Sometimes the temperature dropped low enough to be called chilly, but never with much bite in it, and never enough to actually be considered cold. Suffice to say, winters in Jump were not all that exciting, and they paid little attention to the season changes in their town.

However, this year Beast Boy had had an idea, and a surprisingly good one at that. He suggested that the Titans East and Titans West switched towers for a few weeks in the winter season, making the arguments that he just had to see a real snowstorm, and they wouldn't be neglecting their duties as heroes protecting their cities. They would simply be switching to a different city to protect. Cyborg had immediately been on board with this plan, and Starfire, after a bit of consideration, thought this a splendid idea. Robin had been reluctant, but could find no solid reason not to test out this plan, reasoning with himself that he could always prevent something such as this happening again if it turned out to be a total disaster.

Raven was the only one who was completely against it no matter how much prodding she endured. She flat out refused to get cold. The empath hated the cold with a burning passion that could melt any snow around her. Of course, this wouldn't help should there actually be any snow. However, she went along with the whole thing anyways; it was four against one, and they assured her that there would be a plentiful supply of cold weather clothes for all. Raven grumbled the entire way to Steel City.

So here they were, on the roof of the tower in their temporary home. There were piles of snow all around them, and the Titans delighted in it. Snowball fights were won and lost accordingly (anyone with Raven on their team seemed to win, since she could throw the snowballs without moving an inch), forts were built with agonizing care that took long minutes of their time, and ended up being destroyed in about three seconds when one of them fell on it. Persuaded by Starfire, the five of them made snow angels, lying on their backs and giggling like little kids as they moved their arms back and forth in the white powder. An odd family of snowmen stood in one corner, each Titan having created one. Starfire's seemed to have too many heads and arms, Beast Boy had decided that building an animal would be easier, but upon not being able to decide precisely which animal to build, he meshed quite a few together. Raven's seemed too perfect to be real, having used her powers to sculpt in detail, Cyborg's was disproportionate, and Robin's (of course) had a birdarang in each hand.

There seemed an endless array of games that they could play using the snow, and none, not even Raven, were tiring of it. Her face did seem to be set in a permanent frown, but it may just have been frozen there by the icy wind that blew across the top of the tower frequently. Screams and laughter dissolved into the winter sky, and happiness glowed in an aura around the tower, growing with each minute that they stayed outside. The criminals, it seemed, were being kind to them; they decided not to involve themselves in any criminal activity for the day, leaving the teenagers free to romp in the snow as they wished.

More snowflakes began to gently drift down from the gray-white sky, landing softly in the already accumulated piles around them. Starfire found them to be fascinating. Her face had lit up when she discovered how delicate and detailed each was, and she was interested in the fact that each snowflake was unique. The girl thought that she liked the idea; each one being different, yet beautiful in its own way. It was a nice thought.

Starfire paused where she was kneeling to fix the base of her snowman and tilted her head up, red hair cascading down her back. She opened her mouth and closed her eyes, hoping to catch one of the delicate fallers on her tongue. The alien didn't move, even when there was a resounding smack as a snowball beaned her directly in the center of her back. She winced slightly, but nothing more. Only the shout of, "Argh, Star, are you okay?!" woke her out of her contented daze.

She blinked her bottle green eyes and looked around, noticing Beast Boy's brow furrowed in worry. She smiled at him and nodded her head easily. "I am the o and k," she told him cheerily, standing up and brushing any excess snow off of her knees. Glancing up while she did this, Starfire also took in the other three occupying themselves. Raven was also taking in the snowflakes that were descending again. Her eyebrows drew together almost imperceptibly, and her fingers tightened around the puffy blue jacket that she had been forced into ("It's either this or nuthin', Rae," Cyborg had cheerfully informed her.), pulling it closer.

"Snowing again?" her tone showed exactly what she thought of that. Starfire grinned, knowing that her friend would much rather be inside by a warm fire drinking tea or hot chocolate and merely watching more snow fall.

Beast Boy laughed, packing another snowball together as he did so. "Come on Rae, we've only been out here for an hour or two! Let's have a little more time for fun before we go back inside. Or is 'fun' a foreign word to you?" his green eyes twinkled merrily as he said this. The changeling was so absorbed in what he was doing that he didn't notice the glare that the empath sent flying his way.

Robin had been scrutinizing Raven for the past few moments, watching as she shuffled on her feet and ducked her head back into her hood. He narrowed his eyes, amused, and asked, "Raven… you don't want to go back inside just because you're cold, do you?" he grinned at her reaction, which was to whip her head around in his direction, violet eyes connecting with his and huffing. However much she tried to show that she was perfectly alright, her pink cheeks and nose gave her away.

"Ah, don't worry, we can fix that," Cyborg assured her, pacing forwards a few steps. In response, Raven took some backwards, trepidation clearly showing on her face. "No worries, girl, we've got it covered."

It was as though he had shouted, "Titans, go!" Using skills honed in years of battle, the three boys leaped onto the empath with a yell, who went down with nothing more than a muffled thump. Material flew everywhere and laughter once again rebounded in the open space. It only took a few minutes of coordination between the boys, for when Raven emerged she was buried beneath extra scarves, gloves and hats. The boys were grinning like mad, amazed that they had been able to achieve this without Raven immediately sending them to another dimension and leaving them there to rot. Starfire was slightly shocked too, but she less so; the alien noticed how the snow seemed to loosen everyone up. Even Raven the empath wasn't immune to the powerful effects of a real winter snow.

Robin chuckled, "Now try to ruin our fun." When a surprised glance came from his friend, he simply stuck out his tongue at her. Yup. The snow was affecting everyone.

Starfire watched all this with a smile on her face and laughter in her voice, but it didn't reach her eyes. She studied her usual ensemble and sighed silently. Starfire didn't get cold. It was a fact of life, and she couldn't do anything about it. But as she watched those displays of affections from her brothers, she wondered, and she wanted. She took in all of it; the fact that Raven still shivered slightly, buried underneath all the clothes. The fact that Robin noticed this and threw an arm around her for her comfort. The fact that Beast Boy, not wanting to be left out, nearly tackle-hugged Raven back onto the ground.

She saw all this, and she bit her lip. She did not get cold but… but, sometimes, Starfire wished that she could.

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Author's Notes:

Still on my Starfire kick, but I have a feeling that it'll be out of my system pretty soon. I've have my bout of Starfire, who's up next? This probably isn't my best work, but I really, really liked the idea, and I wanted to write it out. It didn't turn out the way I expected, but these things never do. I just hope that you guys enjoyed reading it! And... is it just me, or do I have a "C" fetish? Coloring, Caught, Cold... O.o

Now, drop a review my fellow TT fans! Please?