Want some gay stuff to listen to? How about "Only One In Color" by Trapt and "Over and Over" by Three Days Grace. Super gay. Super me.

Enjoy this one. It won't be hard. Trust me.

The moon shines brightly over Jump City. Things are a cool quiet in the warm summer air, perfect for a night out in the never sleeping streets.

Especially for two lost souls wandering their way up its roads, walking silently side by side, lost in nearly identical thoughts of insecurities and doubts.

For Starfire, there's a strange sense of excitement beneath all of her queasiness. Sure, very little has been said since leaving the tower, and Raven seems more bashful than baby Bambi; but she's not sad Raven anymore. That's a victory itself.

But there's potential for even more. She has her here to herself, dressed in a skintight black gown, one that was probably meant for a funeral or something morbid like that, but ironically makes her look stunning and beautiful, more so than usual anyway.

In fact, Starfire has had a very hard time looking away from her all evening. Normally she wouldn't mind telling her how gorgeous she is, or how great she is all together… but there's still this unspoken thing between them. The easy to identify, hard to describe tension.

But she's here. And they have time. All night if they need it.

Then there's Raven. Somehow, she manages to be even quieter than usual. And of course, she's had an equally tasking time trying to hide how enticing her companion is. Tameranians sure know how to clean up nice~

After all of these weeks of torturing herself, she finally has Starfire all alone, but she can't help feeling like she's around a stranger. Like that kiss was something to regret rather than remember, like their friendship was spoiled rotten, like there was no hope of moving past everything she had worked so hard for to be accepted by the four other Teen Titans.

And yet… she asked her for this. She asked Raven to accompany her tonight…

Almost like a date.

They pass streetlight after streetlight, shop after shop. No people though. For a city that never sleeps, it sure seems to be resting tonight. Almost just for them.

But Starfire didn't invite her out tonight to go without words. And Raven didn't say yes to pine in familiarly cumbersome awkwardness.

Eventually, someone had to speak up.

And it was going to be…

"Starfire-" "Raven-" both girls begin at once.

Great. Now it was even weirder. But pride had to be swallowed, or the remainder of the evening would be one cringeworthy fumble after another.

"You go ahead," Raven politely suggests.

"No, you proceed. I insist," Starfire rebuts.

Case in point.

Raven takes a deep nasally breath, and puts aside the shaking feelings to say what she needs to say.

"Okay… Starfire… Why are we here? What is this? What are we doing right now?" she asks, trying her very best not to show the cracks.

"I- I do not understand? Your questions are quite vague," Starfire timidly responds.

Raven can't help it. It's as adorable as it is frightening, and she knows she has to explain herself now.

"I mean… You were supposed to go out with Robin tonight. Like… on a date," she responds. "But instead, you're here with me."

"You say that as if it is a bad thing," Starfire belatedly says back.

There's a pause on Raven's behalf too. Every explanation is going to get that much harder to get out.

But, it will be worth it. It has to be.

"Starfire, look at me. I'm wearing this- stupid dress… And you're here wearing this… this…"

"My dress is stupid as well?" she confusingly thinks aloud.

Adorable. Terrifying.

And yet… a small smile creeps on Raven's face. "No… Not at all."

She takes a step back, because she has to create distance with what words she'll soon allow to linger into the air.

"You look wonderful. I think… I don't think you've ever looked better."

Starfire's eyes widen. Her cheeks redden, and she almost desperately takes hold of one of her sideburns as she nervously looks away from the other girl.

"Oh… Well… Thank you. Thank you very much…"

Raven has to look away to, but she feels something that could almost be considered courage swelling up inside of her. She's taken a little initiative so far, but this is Starfire. She knows she'll only do so much to press forward, for better reasons than what could be associated with most.

And if things are ever going to be the same, or better as Beast Boy said…

The truth needs to be set free.

"Starfire… I have a hard time seeing Robin changing his mind about going out with you. What happened?" she coyly begins.

Starfire feels herself tensing up with the sudden interrogation question.

"I… Uhm… It is not what you think…"

"I'm not mad," Raven begins. "Not at all," she softly adds. "Something tells me he found out about… Well… You know…"

Starfire purses her lips in with the realization that she's been exposed.

"I am sorry Raven. I could not keep the secret about our friend kiss," she admits.

Raven stoically stays beside herself. Like she didn't already know that.

But, there's still plenty of air to clear, so she just attentively listens as Starfire provides her explanation.

"The truth is, I was quite flustered and confused. I was wholly unaware of this custom, and it was just so… sudden," she continues. "And after it happened, you just…"

Some of Raven's stoicism wanes as she hears the vehemence in Star's voice.

And despite the anguish it causes her to finish the sentence, Starfire pushes through.

"You pushed me away. I couldn't even look into your eyes without feeling a sense of guilt. That hurt me, Raven. It hurt me a lot."

Raven feels her heart begin to pound in her chest. The idea that she caused this pain for Starfire towers over any of the prior discomfort she felt before.

"I'm sorry. I really mean that," she tells her, steeling herself for the words to come. "The truth is… I was scared."

"Scared?" Starfire simply repeats. Simply, but powerfully.

"Yes," Raven begins, "I was scared because… I was worried you wouldn't like me anymore."

She glues her eyes to the asphalt as she composes her next words, deciding not to overthink them, deciding to just speak from her fluttering heart.

"I know it sounds weird, but… the more we talk… the closer we get… I'm just worried I'll start to care more about you than you'll care about me. And I have to stop myself from expecting… something more…"

"I know I tend to separate myself from others. I lock myself in my room, and I tell myself that I'm better off alone. But the truth is, sometimes, I hate being alone. As comfortable as it can be sometimes, I feel so much better having someone there who understands me. Someone who accepts me for who I am…"

"Especially you," she finishes, looking to Starfire, meeting her gorgeous green eyes.

Starfire looks back, becoming locked in those dark, pained irises.

They stop in their tracks, only looking to one another as the rest of world is silent around them.

"I'm sorry Starfire. I never meant to hurt you. I hope you know that," Raven apologizes once more.

And for a moment, nothing is said. Starfire just fixes her eyes on Raven, burning her with fervent gaze.

But slowly, ever so slowly… Starfire takes her hand, and rests it upon Raven's warm cheek. The Azarathian's eyes widen with the surprising touch, and she practically freezes.

"What- what are you doing?"

Without an answer, Starfire leans in, and plants a pleasant kiss onto Raven's lips.

Like their kiss before, it burns slow. The rest of the world disappears as Starfire closes her eyes, and Raven eventually allows her disbelief to subside to just enjoy this.

In fact, she slides her hands up her nimble waist, and allows them to stay there as she kisses her back.

This is no friend kiss. This is the kiss of two people in love.

Even so, Raven needs to know for sure. She needs to hear it from her lover's tongue.

"Starfire… Why?" she softly asks as she breaks the kiss.

With a quiet consideration in her eyes, Starfire answers.

"Because I wanted to show you how much I care about you. How much I love you."

Raven's eyes dampen as with rush of the moment catches up to her.

"Do you mean… Like a friend kiss?"

Belatedly, Starfire responds.

"I do not care what you call it. All I care about is that you know how much you mean to me. You are my very best friend."

"Perhaps… something more."

Raven's piteous, crestfallen expression molds into an endearing smile.

"I love you, Starfire."

Starfire smiles back, and the two girls join hands and interlock their fingers as they continue sharing this magical kiss.

A chilly summer evening's breeze sneaks up on them though, and they're forced to stop.

They smile at one another with blushing cheeks, and they nervously fidget their hands with the post-romance awkwardness.

It's a good awkward though.

"So…" Raven utters to break the tension. "You're a pretty great kisser."

Starfire giggles into her hand. "And you are not bad yourself."

They smile some more, enough to make a romance author sick typing that word, until Starfire excitedly gasps.

"Huah! The movie! We are going to miss it!" she cries as she remembers the two ticket stubs in her pocket.

She frantically flusters her hands around as she tries to find them, on her person, but Raven reaches out to stop her.

"You know… I didn't really wanna see a movie anyway," she says.

Starfire looks into her eyes once more, and Raven smirks as she rolls them.

"I'd much rather just… Show how much we love each other some more…" she flirts.

Starfire gets wide eyed at the prospect, and then, to Raven's surprise, very joyful.

"Oh, splendid!" she calls out. "Shall we go home and discuss our shared feelings of insecurity and loneliness?" she giddily suggests.

Raven winces with discomfort at that idea, then lets out a drawn out, "Uhhhhhhh…"

Starfire beams that endearing wide smile of hers though, and even rings out a puppy-eyed, "Pleeeeeeeeeease?"

Raven sighs. "Fine."

Starfire squeezes her into a great big bear hug, nearly lifting her date off her feet.

"Oh wonderful! I would much rather spend time with my beloved than watch the cringey romantic comedies!"

Raven feels her lips curving again, and playfully pushes Starfire off of her.

"Okay, lover girl. Let's go home. This dress is chafing me," Raven sardonically confesses, but it doesn't matter. What matters is, she's never felt happier.

She always knew that there was someone out there meant to be her companion, someone to share her inner most thoughts and concerns with. Someone she could rely on to make her smile when she wanted to frown. Someone to help her feel like she isn't alone.

And Starfire? She was just happy to hear Raven loved her.

Side by side, the two girls turned back to head home in the shining night. They were happy. They knew they'd come home to their loving friends, with all of the angst and anguish behind them.

After everything, they still had each other.

And in a crazy way, Beast Boy was right. Things would never be the same.

No.

They were better.

The End

Thanks so much for reading everyone. It really means a lot.

I'll try to keep this short, but I do have to take a little time to reflect because, well, it's me XD.

I love Teen Titans, and I love the pairing of StarRae, RaeFire, whatever you wanna call them. It's a pairing that I didn't have much luck finding stories for in the archive, so I decided to try my own hand at it, and frankly, I'm proud of what I accomplished.

I'll admit that, motivation wasn't always there, and maybe some of the story suffered for that, but overall, I did want to create a fun and endearing story about these two being able to come together in a "canonical" sense.

Also, I'll also admit that, I had another chapter planned for this, but it would've been really cracky, and a friend of mine convinced me it would have been a bad idea to go through with it XD. So, I decided this was the best place to stop, and we can just live the rest of our lives imagining that these two wonderful characters and the rest of the Titans being happy.

Maybe I'll do an alternate ending chapter one day, but probably not, unless everyone on the site just comes together and begs me for one. Which, even if that did happen, I still have other projects to finish, put off for months, and cancel. Life is great :D

Seriously though, thanks again to everyone who read this, or contributed to the success of any of my works. It's been a lot of fun, and hopefully we'll all hear from each other again someday. Take care of your bad selves until next time, true believers.

-JamesSunderlandsPillow