(A/N)- Left everything to the last minute again. But I'm still going to try to get the whole week in.
This one is set sometime early in Robin and Starfire's shared apartment days from previous chapters.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Still don't own Teen Titans or DC. Drat.
RobStar Week 2023, Day 1 - Interstellar Politics
Robin stared at the door to her bedroom for a long moment, listening to the sound of the shower going in her separate bathroom.
How long could a girl wash her hair, exactly? Starfire had told him she would only be "a few minutes" but it had been at least fifteen now and he was beginning to wonder if her internal Tamaranian-to-English translator had a different definition of "minute".
He sighed, and just turned away to go sit on the couch. Morning sunlight was slowly filtering into the room; their apartment faced west towards the ocean so they could only get ambient light through the windows.
Robin flipped open his red cover laptop. While he was waiting he might as well take care of a few things.
Specifically something that they probably should have done that first day. It had been complicated enough just getting Starfire signed onto his lease with the complex, moving him out of the single bedroom to the two bedroom, that all the other legal paperwork they had to take care of had completely slipped his mind.
He downloaded one of the basic forms he knew they needed before remembering they didn't have a printer. Giving a groaning sigh he copied the document to a USB drive before accessing the secure encrypted messaging program on his desktop.
It took a moment or two to connect to the other end.
The program opened a video call window. A green humanoid face greeted him.
Red eyes widened slightly in surprise, and then delighted affection. "Hello Robin," the person on the other end greeted. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?"
Robin let a smile ghost his lips. "Hey J'onn," he said. In spite of the current tension between him and Batman, the rest of the League had been nothing but supportive and concerned about him since his move. He'd had the access codes to the Watchtower's frequency since day one, though he had never used them. Robin tried to think how to begin. "Um... We had a Code 5 over here in Jump, alien warship. Turned it back with a bit of help," he explained.
"I know. We were monitoring the situation," the Martian Manhunter told him, tapping at something on the keyboard on his end.
"Yeah I'm sure you were," Robin muttered under his breath. Still the League's baby kid brother, he supposed. He took a breath, drawing up his composure. "I need a favor. Well," he amended, "a few favors, actually."
J'onn leaned forward, attentive and listening.
-TT-
Starfire exited the car with much nervous trepidation. Her fingers wrung together in front of her as she tilted her eyes up towards the austere-looking government building.
The Lantern that had been driving, a stern-looking man with dark skin and hair, shut off the engine and exited the vehicle, while Robin scooted down the seat and came out the same door she had, taking up a place by her side and touching her elbow in a manner she found quite reassuring.
She turned towards him and managed a smile.
"I apologize," she said, stumbling over the contraction of the word in her head but managing to pronounce it well enough. "We do not have procedures like this on my planet."
"Well," Robin said, beginning to lead her up the stairs towards the door, "it's not for the whole planet, just this particular country." He alerted to something, eyes jerking up towards the sky, breaking into a wonderful smile. "Right on time," he said.
Curious, Starfire looked up, gasping softly as with a whoosh of cloth and displaced air, a flying man in red and blue came down from the sky to join them.
Starfire stared with a bit of awe at the human-looking man, who had a kind face and warm blue eyes, and whose whole demeanor put her at ease, confident and open and friendly.
"Hello Starfire," he said to her, smiling broadly. "They call me Superman. I'm an alien too." He gestured up the steps, towards the oaken doors. "Let's get you all registered and squared away, shall we? I promise, it won't take that long."
Heart thudding, Starfire just followed him and the Lantern up the steps, staying close to Robin's side. All her nerves felt like thin wire fire, but Robin's friends seemed assured and calm so she supposed she could be too.
"What planet is he from?" she whispered at Robin, as the one called 'Superman' held the door open for them.
"Krypton," Robin whispered back.
"Oh... our tutors spoke about the disaster..." she said, eyes pinching with sympathy. "The records claim there were no survivors."
Robin chuckled, and the sound was delightful music to her heart. "Not quite," he told her.
They had passed through the entrance lobby and made it to the service desks now, a wide, open space filled with partially divided offices, and Starfire couldn't help but notice the strange bewildered looks they were getting, people staring at them openly as they made their way through to a particular desk.
The attendant manning it hung up from whatever phone conversation she'd been having, brightening and turning a beaming smile up at them.
"USCIS of Jump City, my name is Sandra, how can I help..." She trailed off, apparently suddenly realizing who was standing before her. "...you?" she finished, much more timidly than before.
The Lantern, the Superman, and Robin all looked back at her.
Swallowing, Starfire found her voice.
"I wish to... declare asylum?" she said, hesitant. She glanced aside questioningly at Robin, checking with him.
He nodded, smiling encouragingly.
The clerk looked the group up and down, gawking, wide-eyed like she was staring down a charging Ragthok. "Uhhhhhhhhh..." she drew out for a long... long moment.
Starfire flushed a bit, embarrassed.
After a minute or two the clerk seemed to kick herself back into operation. "Sure. Okay," she said, sounding not especially confident. "Do you have a Form I-589?" she asked.
From somewhere on his person, the Superman produced it.
"Right here," he said. Not missing a beat he added, "We're also going to need an I-718. And the DHS is going to want to file their own report, possibly conduct a remote interview." He withdrew a scrap of paper, handing it to the bewildered clerk. "I have the contact information for an agent in the Outworlds Threats department right here."
Reeling slightly, the woman could only mutter a soft, "Okay... one moment please," before turning and getting up from her desk on wobbly legs, going over to what Starfire could only assume was a superior and conversing with him seriously.
Starfire's face flamed hot and she ducked her head, embarrassed to be causing such a problem for the nice young woman.
Robin noticed, and his hand found the small of her back, gloved fingers touching there with reassurance.
Starfire's spine flared with warm tingles, and she couldn't look at the boy, her heart turning in funny flips inside her.
She was so grateful to him for doing this. She wanted to stay on this planet, at least until it might be safe to return to Tamaran, and he had been so kind and understanding and diligent to make that happen. She was utterly lost as to what the correct procedure was, how best to respect the laws of the country she'd landed in, and Robin had been ever-present at answering her questions, explaining things to her with magnanimous patience.
She wished she could repay him.
"Hey," he said, and she glanced towards him from the corner of her eye, "don't worry. The League will take care of everything. They've done this a bunch of times before." Robin nodded towards the Superman. "Heck, Superman helped invent half of these procedures."
Tension in her back eased out, the girl relaxing slightly. "That is good to know," she admitted.
The clerk wandering back to the desk drew all of their attention, and Robin's hand dropped away from her back, to Starfire's slight disappointment.
"Okay!" the clerk said breathily, voice slightly strained, holding out a stapled stack of papers to the adults. She still looked out of her depth but her tone was nothing but professional as she instructed, "Please complete the I-718 to the best of your ability while we wait to get in touch with the agent at the Outworlds Threats Department." She slid another paper off her desk, glancing first towards Starfire and then each of her three escorts. "Is there anyone willing to fill out an Affidavit of Character for you?" she asked.
"I'll do it," Robin immediately volunteered, stepping forward and taking the form at once.
From then there was a bit of rustling for pens and the scratch of ink on paper. Starfire nudged Robin for clarification on a few items, and he whispered explanations, as the Lantern leaned against the desk, and Superman chatted up the clerk's superior.
The quiet hum of the office and soft muted voices were a pleasant white noise, until the phone on the clerk's desk startled them with a sharp ring.
-TT-
"Let me get this straight..." sighed the DHS agent on the other end of the line. They were in a backroom now, the video conference call with the government office in Washington D.C. piped in on a large projector screen from the computer. The graying older man rubbed his temples wearily. "You helped an alien prisoner of war escape custody and blew up the ship transporting her, stranding about thirty hostile alien soldiers on Earth?"
"They were taking her to be a slave!" Robin burst indignantly, visibly fuming.
"And we didn't strand the Gordanians," Green Lantern said, as stern and unflappable as ever. "The League rounded them all up and delivered them back to their homeworld by eighteen hundred hours after the incident."
"So all we've risked is pulling Earth into the middle of some far off intergalactic war," grumbled the agent.
"The Gordanians started it when they threatened to blow up the city!" Robin protested. "That's an act of aggression against a neutral party!"
Starfire watched his agitated gestures as he defended her with mixed amusement and appreciation. She still couldn't wrap her head around him. How could he be so certain about her that he'd risk his planet's safety? Why was he just so nice?
Superman gently put a hand on Robin's shoulder, nudging him aside. "What Robin means," he corrected indulgently, "is that The Citadel provoked hostilities first. Earth is protected under the Sector 23 Neutral Act. By setting foot on the planet, the Gordanians forfeited any legal protection against retaliatory self-defense actions undertaken by any parties on Earth."
"I know what the act says..." the agent grumbled.
"Then you'll remember that Earth is sanctioned as an asylum world under the jurisdiction and enforcement of the Guardians of Oa," Green Lantern told the government agent calmly. "If The Citadel wants to beef with Earth, they're going to have the entire Lantern network unilaterally declaring war on them."
The agent accepted that with a tired sigh. "What about this... Tamaran?" he asked, now sidling a suspicious look towards Starfire. "What's to say the Citadel won't resume hostilities against the planet? My understanding is that Starfire here is part of a ceasefire truce."
Robin was stepping forward again, but Starfire preempted him, secretly thrilling at his gumption. "If I may?" she said. She clasped hands in front of herself, respectfully. "The ceasefire may not have been legitimate anyway. The one who negotiated it was not the heir. My people have held the Gordanians at bay for over five years. I am certain they would not hesitate to fight back should the Gordanians break their agreement."
"I see." The man shifted back in his seat. "Well, let me inform the Secretary of Defense and we'll see what he says."
The screen blipped off, going black.
"This could take a while," Robin admitted, turning to her. "Want to get some ice cream?" he offered.
She tilted her head. "What is ice cream?"
-TT-
Starfire and Robin looked up from their cups of delightfully sweet strawberry cream as the doors squeaked open. Starfire stuck her spoon in the little cardboard bowl and rose from the steps, eyes anxious as Superman and Green Lantern exited.
The Kryptonian smiled. "Well, they have some paperwork to finalize and a few processing fees they'll bill to the League treasury, along with the ASC fingerprinting appointment, but it looks like you're squared away. Your asylum request has been rubber stamped."
Light and firecrackers bubbled inside her chest. "I may stay?!" Her feet left the steps as she squealed happily, whirling around towards Robin. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" she cried, throwing her arms around him and scooping him up, hugging him tightly as she lifted him.
"Hhnhh!" was all Robin could manage, teeth locked in a grimace and face turning purple.
"Uh, careful," Superman cautioned her, quickly taking her arms to get her to set the Boy Wonder down and release him.
Confused, Starfire stepped back, looking with some alarm as Robin doubled over, heaving and holding his stomach. "Robin?" she called in concern.
"I'm okay!" he managed to strain, voice wheezing. He gave a couple harsh coughs, which seemed to belie that.
Superman patted Starfire's shoulder. "Pull your strength," he told her. "Something I learned very quickly living here is that humans are very fragile."
"Ohhh..." Starfire said, putting embarrassed hands over her face. She immediately rushed over to Robin's side, checking him over for injuries.
Green Lantern watched her fretting, Robin waving her off, still heaving for breath, and let his face crack with a smile. The Tamarian princess fussed like a worried girlfriend, and the blush on the Boy Wonder's cheeks as she touched him all over was undeniable.
"Ah, young love," he commented, thoroughly amused.
(A/N)- The I-718 form is something I made up, along with, obviously, the Outworlds Threat Department, but everything else is styled off the real-world process.