The titans were spending a day at the Jump City Zoo, where Beast wanted to re-familiarize himself with whatever animals might help him fighting crime, but also just to have a good time. As they went from place to place, Garfield was telling them random animal facts.
"Did you know bears are smarter than we gave them credit for? They're better at navigation overall, have excellent memories and are able to use tools for things like playing to hunting. This is due to their large brain to body ratio. Polar Bears are believed to be the smartest to survive in such desolate, artic areas."
"Did you know mandrills are known to be the largest monkeys on Earth? Males can weigh on average 55 pounds to as high as 120. Females only weigh as much as 25 on average because of sexual dimorphism."
"Cranes are known to fly over the Himalayas, upwards to around 16,000-26,000 feet. However, doing so can kill a crane due to fatigue, hunger or predators."
"Peacocks have microscopic crystal like structures on their tails that reflect different light wavelengths depending on how they're spaced. This shimmering effect is shared by butterflies and humming birds."
"The common myth about goldfish is that they have the memory span of three seconds, but in actually they can remember stuff up to three months! Believe me, if I only remembered up to three seconds as a goldfish, then I might've forgotten I could transform, was part of the Teen Titans, or maybe even my identity!" Starfire was listening to that last bit.
"Oooo. I am learning so much of the animals native to Earth. They may not be as ferocious as a gridnock, but there is so much variety that far surpasses the fauna of Tamaran." It was then though that a black family was discussing something in front of an information board, and they appeared to be distressed.
"Hold on a sec Star." Beast said as he went to the family and spoke in their language. He pointed in a direction and they appeared to have thanked him before rushing off. When he walked back to Starfire, the alien princess asked,
"What did you say to them?"
"They wanted to know when the next sea lion feeding was. They're tourists from Mali in Africa, where I was born and raised, and picked up a French flyer since that's another major language there. However, it was poorly translated since they couldn't read it well."
"How can a flyer be poorly translated? I know you humans learn languages from birth by verbal teaching and education studying, unlike Tamaraneans lip contact, so I do not understand how a flyer can be improperly translated when you have so many languages learned."
"Not many people speak multiple languages." Richard answered as he slung an arm around her shoulders. "Most people only know their native language, and some learn usually one, maybe two languages at most in school, and even then they're not expertly fluent to the extent of their native language. Many companies and people use translation programs to help convert one language to another, but the technology isn't perfect. Words and simple sentences can be translated no problem, but long texts tend to be mistranslated due to grammar, usage and meaning."
"Interesting. Do you all know multiple languages?" She asked her friends as they all regrouped. They all collectively said yes, listing languages they knew. "I know the languages of Greek, Latin, Mandarin, Hindi, European Spanish, French, Arabic, Bengali, Russian, Portuguese, Indonesian and Japanese, back when I had that brain boost by Raven's amulet and the trip to Tokyo. Do you think perhaps if I kissed you all, I could learn even more of the languages?" To that, Beast laughed.
"Sorry Star, but since we speak mostly English despite being multilingual, you'd probably just sound like us." Cyborg then laughed at that respectively more loudly as he wiped away a tear a few seconds later.
"Aw man, I'd like to see that! That'd be so hilarious!"
"Hmmm, I would also like to experience speaking like you all." The Tamaranean said, to the surprise of everyone.
"You really want to try and sound like us?" Jinx inquired.
"Yes. Would it not be the amusing?"
"Actually, yeah." Cyborg agreed, after thinking about it. "I wasn't expecting you to go for it, but hearing you talk like Grass Stain would make me crack me up." Richard grumbled.
"It wouldn't be amusing for me." Richard objected though.
"What is the problem, Boyfriend Nightwing?"
"It's because you're in a relationship." Raven answered. "Relationships here in the United States don't allow for intimate interaction aside from their lover. He's just being jealous that you're willing to kiss us." Starfire's eyes widened at hearing this and went to her boyfriend to hug him from the side.
"Oh Nightwing, do not the worry about our relationship. This matter is just simply for the comedic experience of talking like my teammates. We Tamaraneans pick up the vocabulary, not the dialect that comes with it, so me sounding like them is purely my choice for fun. I will not do anything to show that I care about our relationship less. I love you so much." He looked into her innocent looking puppy eyes, and his frown softened.
"Mmm, okay. I trust you. Just for today, you can kiss the others. I love you too Star." The couple gave each other a quick peck.
"Wonderful! But you all have such appealing particulars to your speech. How shall I decide to whom I shall make the lip contact?"
"We can play spin the bottle." Cyborg recommended. "Come on, let's get a soda and play." After getting green plastic Pixie bottle and drinking it, the titans, aside from Robin, sat in a circle. Starfire spun the bottle, and it landed on Garfield.
"Yeah boy!" Beast cheered.
"Here is going the nothing." Starfire shrugged as she and the changeling kissed, and she started to speak in his mannerisms, and not have her voice sound like his.
"Dids it the work, the dudes and dudetts?" She then gasped. "Aw yeah, I sound like friend Beast, son! I sounds like you, yo! Wow!" The alien princess laughed, along with the green hero.
"You do sounds like me yo!"
"That's whats up!/That is the whats up!" They said at the same time and laughed. It certainly helped that all the titans lived with each other for so long, they could all imitate each other if they tried. Except maybe Raven since she was so naturally monotone. The other titans were laughing or giggling from the display. Even Richard was half smirking from how unusual she was sounding, quite similar to their transforming friend.
"Let us hits the pool!" Starfire suggested, and thus they were all sunbathing as the alien female titan floated above them slowly. "So, what up my mans and womans? Are you enjoying bathing in the ultraviolets of your sun?"
"It does feel nice." Jinx replied.
"Yeah, yo aura is looking tight today." Starfire said, only to get confused looks from the others.
"Huh?"
"Your auras. Yo know, your metaphysical flow."
"Huh, I don'ts normally talk and think about auras." Beast pointed out. "In fact, what's an aura again?"
"Spirit energy. It's sort of like my soul-self but not as demonic." Raven answered. "But uh, yeah. That did sound weird for a Beast impersonation."
"Then shall we play the spinning bottle again mama?" Starfire asked. "I do nots want to be the Mr. or Miss Understood for my homies."
"Allow me." Raven brought back the bottle from earlier, and Starfire spun it again. This time, it landed on Cyborg.
"Booyah!" The metallic titan exclaimed. Once the two kissed, Starfire floated up while wriggling her arms around in excitement as she yelled like Cyborg,
"Oh yeah, that is what I am talking about! Yo Cy, you want to watch some of the VHS tapes?!"
"Only if it's the classic line up!" The original said.
"You know the it, my dude!" The alien girl agreed.
"Booyah!" They both cheered as they flew to the living room and binged watched some 80's tv, like Stevie Urchin. However, if there was one problem Cyborg had, it was Starfire repeatedly saying dude and his catchphrase, booyah. He knew he said those often, but Starfire said one, or the other, or even both at least once per minute, and an hour later, he was just about tired hearing his speech pattern.
"Hey Star, how about you give the bottle another spin. I think I'm going to take a nap and appreciate some silence.
"I understand bro. Yo guys, bring out the bottle again! Booyah!" She yelled as she flew to her friends, with Cyborg sighing in relief. With another spin of the bottle, this time she and Raven kissed, and suddenly spoke like the sorceress.
"This is the childish. I shall go into my room and go do the meditating."
"Hmm, spot on. Okay, it's your turn Jinx." Raven brought her to stand in her place.
"Well that was fast." The metahuman remarked.
"Hmm, too be honest, hearing Starfire sound that much like Raven is a little freaky." Garfield admitted.
"Yeah, such a bubbly girl like her speaking so monotone and soft spoken? It's a little too jarring." Victor shivered.
"So my speaking of the friend Raven is the bad?" The Tamaranean asked with concern.
"More like a little too good." Raven replied. "Even I'm getting a little creeped now by how off my mannerisms sounds on you. Try Jinx now please." Shrugging, She and Jinx kissed, and the alien princess scoffed while flipping part of her hair aside.
"Might as guys clearly do not know how to handle me talking like you all."
"Hmm, she actually sounds good snippy." Jinx giggled.
"Oh yeah Pinkie. I can do the slinging of lingo and snarking with the sarcasm all over the place." Starfire said with a whole bunch of exaggerated sardonic expressions, to which Beast was laughing.
"Oh man dude, I can't take it!" Garfield began to wheeze from how hard he was laughing. Richard didn't know how to feel. Just like with being monotone, sarcasm just wasn't Starfire. But, she appeared to be having fun as she tried to poke the snarking comments at her friends with varying success, and smiled as he closed his eyes. That was when the voices quieted down for a moment and soon felt a pair of lips on his own. He opened his eyes in surprise to see that Starfire had just kissed him.
"That was indeed the fun, but I know you would prefer me to speak as how I naturally am. And so that is how I shall be." Richard smiled as he took her hands.
"Thank you Star. We love you just as the way you are."
"Yes. I will be true to myself. I love you Richard."
"I love you too Kori." He replied. The couple then kissed again. Jinx giggled while Beast placed an arm around Raven's shoulders, with the latter blushing and smiling as she held his hand. Once they separated, Starfire looked to her friends, winked, and said to Nightwing,
"I would wish to kiss again."
"My pleasure Starfire." Closing his eyes, he went in for the kiss, but this time he felt a sharp prickly sensation. He yelped as he saw a cactus in a floating black pot hovering in front of his face, followed by uproarious laughter from his girlfriend and teammates.
"Haha, he fell for it like the hook, line and weighty object!" Starfire giggled.
"You just kissed a cactus dude!" Beast made fun of the fact. "You gots a crush on a cactus!"
"Hey handsome." Raven spoke in a passionate voice. "You must be in love with me to kiss a cactus. Why don't you give me another kiss?" Raven made kissy noises to which all but Nightwing laughed at as he tried pushing the plant away. Taking the cactus away now, Starfire approached her boyfriend as she explained,
"I am sorry for the depict, Boyfriend Nightwing. It was something I plotted with them while I was impersonating with Jinx. But if you would like..." She then spoke in a cutsie baby voice a mother would say to a young child, "I will kiss your boo boo on your lips to make them feel better." The titan leader chuckled, despite being tricked.
"I'd very much like that, yes." Holding hands, the two went to Starfire's room while the others were left chuckling.
"Haha, Starfire may be clumsy with words, but that just makes her more endearing." Jinx said amused.
"Definitely." Raven and Beast agreed.
A/N: I really liked this simple and funny chapter. This was another thing where I just wanted to make one easy fix, and have it just be a fun chapter on Starfire wanting to have fun with her friends rather than be a lesson of being who she is. And besides, if her kissing Robin did not make her 100% familiar with idioms and contractions, then I'd imagine kissing her friends wouldn't improve that a lot. At least once each anyway. As for Blackfire speaking perfectly though, I think it's because she kissed so many people the knowledge transfer refined it enough that it became a non-issue. Who knows? I haven't spoken to anyone if they know definitively and the wiki trivia didn't have a satisfactory answer since most of the people she kissed would likely be as perfectly fluent in English as Robin. But regardless, it was a fun chapter to write. Next chapter will be great.