Starfire stood in front of the large picture window in the common area, watching the sun rise. She had been in too much pain to sleep and the medications available to her on Earth tended to be ineffective. She was wrapped in a dressing that nearly covered her entire torso. When she had been slammed into the wall, a steel support beam had been torn loose and it cut her back badly. It had taken enough stitches to close the wound that she had lost count. Her face was as quiet and still as it ever got.

Robin had finally become so fuzzy headed with fatigue that he had given up and headed for bed. He passed through the common area on the way and stopped, watching her silently for a moment. "This Mike is a fearsome warrior," she said. He walked silently to her and stood, also regarding the sunrise.

Robin nodded somberly, watching her carefully. "Yes, he is."

Suddenly, much to Robin's surprise, her eyes lit with lambent green fire and her voice coarsened. He felt actual, literal heat radiating from her as energy coalesced around her hands. "I too am a fearsome warrior and he will learn that when next we meet." She turned and looked at him with a wolf's smile, all teeth and cold eyes. Robin nearly took an involuntary step back. "You will learn his secrets and you will make a plan and he will be defeated." She visible mastered herself and gave a quick glance at Robin and then back to the view. "As sure as morning follows night."

Robin watched her curiously. They had lost fights before. Enemies had pushed and tasked them in many ways over the years. Star had seldom reacted like this. "What's going on?" he asked.

"I am angry," she said.

"Clearly," he said. "Why are you so angry? We've lost fights before."

She still didn't look at him. "Those we fight are so often ridiculous people; foolish little men who want only to feel strong because they are not. They make childish speeches and pose for the cameras. Not this Mike. He was…" she trailed off, seeking the words.

"Serious?" Robin suggested.

She nodded. "He was serious. He fought with intelligence." Her lip curled, "We have lost before but never to someone with such… casual contempt. He did not fear or respect us and was certain he could defeat us."

"He was kind of right," Robin said.

"I believe the phrase is 'that was just round one'. There is much battle yet to be done."

Raven was awakened, much to her dismay, when the morning sun hit her full in the face. Her heavy drapes had been improperly arranged, leaving a gap. She was instantly certain that it was, in some way, Gar's fault. She made a sound that sounded something like "gack!" and rolled away from the offending illumination. Unfortunately, that placed her face in unexpected and direct contact with Gar's armpit. He was awakened by a strange sensation in a surprising location and a sudden howl of outrage. He blearily saw Rae swiping at her face as she rolled out of bed and raced to her bathroom, where soap and water began being applied with vigor. "What happened?" he asked muzzily.

"You afflicted me with your gross stinkiness first thing in the morning!" she replied indignantly. "My God! It isn't coming off!" she said as she scrubbed at her nose, which had unfortunately led the charge. Beast Boy took a moment to figure out what had happened and started laughing when he did. "Stop it," she said crossly.

"Hey," he said, "You're the one that stuck your face in there."

"How can you sweat so much in your sleep?"

"Stop exaggerating," he replied, a little hurt.

Cyborg sat in front of the monitor watching the fight again. He was sure he had seen all that there was to see but the gain on his auditory system seemed to be damaged. It kept focusing oddly, picking up small sounds from seemingly random sources so he sat and fiddled with it with a short screwdriver, watching the footage mechanically to pass the time. He suddenly 'heard' a nearly painful electronic squeal and it refocused again. Distantly but with perfect clarity, he heard Beast Boy saying "You're the one who stuck your face in there." When he heard Raven's reply, he calmly, deliberately, and immediately rammed the screwdriver deep into the side of his own head, obliterating the auditory pick up.

"Don't need to hear that," he muttered to himself.

Starfire had just finished her grimly optimistic declaration when Cyborg passed through the common room on his way upstairs. "Morning, guys," he said. "I'm off to charge and catch a snooze." They both nodded bemusedly and he walked past them, grandly ignoring the looks they were giving him.

Starfire spoke hesitantly after he had left the room, "Why did Cyborg have a screwdriver in his head?" Robin gave a half shrug and opted to not consider the question too closely.

Rae came out of her bathroom still rubbing her nose as if she were about to sneeze and her face scrunched up in a way he couldn't help finding adorable. "I'm showering," she said, opening a drawer and getting out some clothes. He relaxed again and stared at the ceiling. Part of him had all but screamed to ask if he could join her but he refrained. Bad timing, considering how beat up and sore they both were. He was just about to doze back off when she emerged. She opened another dresser drawer and tossed something onto the bed. "Your turn," she said, pointing towards the bathroom.

He realized that it was clothing… his clothing. Fresh and clean and straight from her drawers. "I have clean stuff here?" He didn't remember bringing it.

She shrugged. "You left them in the gym," she said. "I tossed them in with my laundry and forgot to return them."

He felt that he should say something about it. The casual intimacy of the gesture touched him. After being utterly unable to come up with anything that didn't sound dumb, he just thanked her and went to shower. Rae lay back down and, in spite of her discomfort and the spanking new looming threat, felt content. No, not content… or not just that. She was calm but excited. The knowledge that he would be coming out of her bathroom and they would lay together and plan their day both soothed and aroused her. She considered just going in and getting in the shower with him. Emotion roiled through her at the thought and she had to tamp down hard to control it. She wasn't ready for that. Gar finished quickly and came back to bed. They automatically cuddled close, neither saying a word for a moment. Finally, he said, "Want to try to go back to sleep?"

"You can," she said. "I'm slept out."

"Me too, I guess," he replied with a sigh. They were lying on their sides, her back to him. His right arm was stretched out across the bed and her head rested on it. "How's your jaw?" he asked. "Need to get an x-ray or something?"

She shook her head, "I'll be fine. Just bruised. How about yours?"

"About the same," he said.

"We need to call Ben and get you in to see him," she said. Ben Pepin was, for all intents and purposes, the Titan's dentist and got a fair amount of work from them. He quirked a small smile at her use of "we" that she couldn't see.

"I hate the dentist."

"Stop it. Ben's nice."

"I didn't say I hate him," he replied in the tone he used when he thought he was being reasonable. "I said I hate dentists. Two different things." She didn't answer except to shake her head a little. After a moment he grunted in annoyed amusement. "I was going to kiss you but then I realized how dumb that was."

She laughed a little. "It would hurt too much right now."

"Almost worth it anyway," he said.

"Almost," she agreed. With immense reluctance, she sat up. "Go get ready and call Ben's office. We can get some food after." He sat on the edge of the bed for a moment, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. Just as he was about to stand, she stayed him with a hand on his arm. "Gar," she said.

"Yeah?"

"We just slept together," she said softly.

"Yeah."