Toe Of Mistle

Christmas Eve had rolled around quickly and Robin had somehow been convinced into agreeing that the Titans could hold a Christmas party at the tower. He had expected Titans East and maybe a few of the honorary Titans to show up. What he hadn't expected was every single Titan to decide to show up and fill the entire ops room of the tower. He supposed it wasn't a bad thing really, a lot had happened over the last year and he understood that they all needed some time to relax and Christmas was definitely the perfect opportunity for him.

The only thing he wasn't going to do was dress up. No. He would not be wearing a costume. Beast Boy and Cyborg had found it such a hilarious idea to propose the idea of a Santa suit for him to wear, they were easy to turn down. But as usual, Starfire had to over hear the conversation. She had to float over with those big gleeful eyes and join in with the pleading. He tried his best to keep his disagreement but with the promise of Starfire dressing up as one of his elves he gave in instantly. It was this same elf outfit that Robin was currently gawking at as she stepped out of her room.

"Robin! Your suit of the Santa is most festive!" she cheered as she clapped her hands together

Robin's brain felt like it was going into meltdown, he was lucky that his mask hid his eyes as he was struggling to keep himself from staring. When he pictured an elf costume he imagined the classic costume that he saw people at the mall wearing. What he didn't imagine was a short green and red dress, long striped stockings and elf shoes, all topped off with an elf hat and Christmas tree earrings. He was glad that his cheap tacky fake beard was hiding the blush that was burning at his face. "Star…you look…errm"

"Is this not the correct elven attire? Raven helped me do the picking of it when we last went shopping" she asked nervously and began twiddling her hands as if she had done something wrong.

"You look great, Star" he said with a smile. He amazed himself how quickly he could go from being a bumbling idiot trying to think of any words other than 'Starfire pretty', to a reassuring friend. He wasn't sure whether he should yell at Raven for suggesting the outfit or thank her, he could take a wild guess and say that Raven expected his reaction to the outfit in the first place. "I feel like an idiot" he said with a nervous chuckle.

She giggled and tugged on his fake beard "I think you look very festive and much of the jolly!" with a smile she looped her arm through his and began leading him down the corridor. The sliding doors opened and the sound of talking and loud Christmas music pierced their eardrums. The vast majority of the party-goers had all dressed up in some way or another, most wore Christmas jumpers and hats but the odd few had come in costume. Within moments of them entering the occupants all turned to stare at the short skinny Santa Clause before the room burst into laughter. Cyborg and Beast Boy pushed their way through the crowd and to the doorway. Cyborg wore an elf hat and Beast Boy wore a pair of reindeer antlers.

"Dude! You wore the Santa suit!" Beast Boy grinned

"Yeah Rob, we really didn't think you'd go for it. What changed your mind?" Cyborg asked, he noticed that Robin was silently looking in the direction of Starfire, to which he grinned broadly. He smirked as he looked over at the reason Robin was looking flustered, "nice elf outfit Star"

"Yeah, you look-", he paused briefly as he looked over at Robin's warning face "Christmassy!" he finished with a nervous chuckle.

"Thank you friends! Though Beast Boy, I thought we would all be dressing as the elves?"

"Yeah, I tried the outfit on and there was that much green I was basically camouflaged. I thought that since I could turn into a reindeer then I would just dress as one as well"

"All of you are dressed as elves? Even Raven?" Robin asked with a smirk

"Yes! She took a lot of the persuading but she is wearing the costume" Starfire replied happily

They were interrupted by Speedy who was also wearing a Santa Suit "Nice suit Dick, great minds think alike I suppose?" he smirked as he scanned over the other members of the Titans, before his eyes landed on Starfire "Woah. Looking hot Star"

"Thank you, Speedy" she replied with a warm smile "you look most festive!"

"Not as festive as you Star, and please, call me Roy"

Cyborg turned anxiously to look at his red, white and not-so-jolly leader who looked like steam should have been pouring out of his ears. He usually liked teasing his leader over his infatuation with Starfire but he could see this wasn't going to end well. "Hey Roy, good to see you man. Let's go have something to drink over there. Is that Bee? I thought I saw her" he said quickly as he guided the archer away into the crowd.

The only thing that was actually making Robin want to have this party is so that he'd get some time to spend with Starfire. He had been so busy leading up to this and he missed the attention of his best friend. But now his hopes for that were crushed as he sat on a kitchen stool watching as she was mobbed by the majority of the male occupants, each one getting chance to dance with her. He rested his head on the countertop and sighed heavily.

"What's wrong, Robin?" Raven asked with a sigh almost rivalling his

He looked up to find the green cloaked elf sat on the seat beside him. "That easy to notice?" he replied with a sigh.

"It is when you're an empath and can literally feel your sourness from across the room. So, what's wrong?"

He lowered his head again and gestured with his finger over to the middle of the room where Starfire currently was. "Ah. Not denying it anymore I see?" Raven replied with a smirk.

"What's the point of denying it when I didn't even have a chance in the first place?" he moped

"Oh come on, Dick. She's only dancing"

"It's not what she's doing. It's who she's doing it with. She's dancing with Aqualad"

"And?"

"It was clear before that she liked him"

"That was before, and if that's what you're worrying about then why aren't you going out there and doing something about it"

"I don't-"

"Why is it that you can make instant choices in every other aspect of your life but as soon as it comes to Starfire you can't even help yourself"

"I don't know Raven. Sometimes I just wanna be her friend" he paused "but then I see her in a dress like that and talking to other guys and suddenly I realise that I want so much more than just to be her friend"

"Wow. I don't think you have ever been this open with me before, Dick"

"I don't know, maybe it's just tonight or-"

"You don't need to regret it" she said, cutting him off "You should be more open, I'm the only one with a valid reason to be closed off. You don't need to close yourself off. I want you to go over there and talk to her, I'm sure she'd much prefer to be talking to you than those other guys"

Robin smiled back at his friend "Thanks Rae"

"Don't tell anyone I gave you relationship advice" she said with a smirk

Robin pushed his way slowly through the sea of guests, each one sniggering as they saw Santa trying to push past them. Eventually he managed to get over to where Starfire was, for what he believed was the first time in the night she was actually alone. He gave her a smile as he walked up to her and she smiled brightly back. "Hi Star"

"Robin!" she greeted cheerfully, "What brings you to the dancing area? I did not believe you liked to dance very much. Where has your beard gone friend?"

"I took it off because it was itching me really badly" well that and the fact that he didn't want to be wearing a false beard whilst he had this talk. "I came over…because I missed you"

She smiled but tilted her head in confusion "Missed me? But we have been in the same room the entire night"

"Yeah but I haven't gotten to talk to you much. I've been really busy recently and-"

He was interrupted as her arms were wrapped around him in a warm hug "I have missed you too, Richard"

He felt like he could melt right then and there and he had to withhold a sad sigh as she pulled away from him. He felt his ears become hot as he saw what caused the interruption.

"Hi again Star. Didn't get to tell you how much I loved that dress before Cy rudely interrupted me" Speedy said with a smirk

"Oh greetings again, Roy. I was just speaking to Robin-"

"I'm sure Dick won't mind if we have a dance, right? I wanted to ask you before but I got interrupted"

Robin was furious at this point and he desperately tried to not show how red his face was getting. Speedy knew about his feelings for Starfire and yet he was still trying to hit on her regardless of that fact. He wanted to punch him. So desperately did he want to knock that stupid grin of his friend's face.

The crowd was silenced slightly as a small green humming-bird darted around the room, wobbling precarious as it tried to carry a sprig of mistletoe in its feet. "Watch out y'all!" Cyborg called playfully "The mistletoe is on the move!" The small avian creature managed to steady itself over where Robin and Starfire was, but seemed to be tipping to the left due to the weight of the object.

Speedy looked up at the mistletoe and smirked, "Looks like we can skip the dancing cutie" he said as he gestured upwards. Starfire blushed slightly but began looking anxiously between Speedy, Robin and the mistletoe. Speedy reached for her arm and gently began to move closer to her.

A mix of jealousy and anger fuelled within Robin and his threat of a punch was more like a birdarang to Speed's skull now. It wasn't until his rage was replaced by another feeling did Robin realise that he had his arms wrapped firmly around Starfire's waist and his lips locked firmly with hers. After a few moments his eyes shot open and he pulled his mouth away quickly.

"Bit more careful with your position next time BB!" Cyborg called with a grin

Robin's mind was racing a mile a minute, he couldn't quite believe that he had actually just done that. But what was even more unbelievable was the fact that Starfire was holding on to him a well. He looked back up at her and her cheeks were burning a bright red and her eyes shimmered affectionately. He gave a quick look over her shoulder and could see Beast Boy, Raven and Cyborg giving him a thumbs up from across the room. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a dejected, grumbling Speedy sauntering off into the crowd, as everyone else stood in awe around him and Starfire. He couldn't think what to do now, his mind raced to the thought of mistletoe. Oh yeah, the greeting! "Merry Christmas St-", he let out in a muffled squeak as she forced their lips back together and was hungrily stealing kisses from him.

The End

Author's Notes:

Hope you enjoyed this one!

Was meant to go out on Christmas Eve but I only just finished writing it at 4am.

The Moving Forward finale should be out before New Year's Eve so look forward to that!

I haven't forgotten about Firsts. It's just not been my main priority. I find it hard to write non-romance and so I struggle with stories that are set pre-tokyo.

Have a very merry Christmas/Holiday season from me!

UnknownTitans