Disclaimer: Don't own Teen Titans

A/N: the nightmare sequence and pretty much most of this story was inspired by starsandsams one-shot A Sisterly Bond, please go read that, it is an amazing story.

Sisters Under the Stars

Raven sighed as she entered the main room of the tower. It was early, about 5 in the morning, and everyone except perhaps Robin was fast asleep, or so she thought. She reached for her kettle and that was when she noticed that she wasn't the only one in the room.

"Starfire…" she whispered as her amethyst eyes rested on the usually cheerful girl sitting in a dark corner of the room hugging her knees.

Starfire had woken about three that morning her mind still haunted with the memories of arguably the worst nightmare the Tamaranean girl had ever had. She knew her actions against her sister would come back to haunt her one day. If Blackfire ever learned of how her feelings had grown about her teammates they would suffer. It was particularly the relationship she felt between herself and Raven that had her the most concerned. The sorceress felt more like a sister than Blackfire ever had, she considered her and showed her love for her in her own unique way. Starfire was terrified one day Blackfire would learn of that feeling that Raven was a better sister and go after the sorceress for revenge for taking her place in spite of the fact that Blackfire didn't really love Starfire.

Starfire sighed and left her bedroom knowing she wasn't going to be able to sleep. She got to the ops room and found a dark corner to hide in and wait for the others to appear. By that time, she would be able to put on the mask of cheerfulness and hope that none of them saw through it.

Starfire didn't know how long she sat there alone, hugging her knees when Raven entered the room to make her morning cup of tea. She hoped against all hope the sorceress wouldn't notice her, but as it had been all morning her luck didn't hold out.

"Starfire… what's wrong?" Raven asked abandoning her task of setting up her kettle to investigate what had made the usually cheerful alien princess so depressed.

"I am… fine."

Raven shook her head; that was a lie, and a bad one.

"Do us both a favor and please don't lie to me… one: I'm an empath I can tell you are not fine, and two: you are really bad at lying." She admonished gently as she took a seat beside the taller girl. "Now far be it from me to pry into your private business but what are you doing huddled in a dark corner at five in the morning?"

"I just cannot stop thinking about her?"

Raven turned to look at Starfire.

"Who…" she had a feeling she knew.

"My sister… Blackfire…" Starfire replied.

Raven sighed, she'd been right, Blackfire was the topic keeping the redhead awake.

"Starfire, look you are giving this too much thought… I know she's your sister and you're always going to love her but… Starfire you have seen the lengths she's willing to go to in order to hurt you." Raven replied. "She doesn't deserve the love you still give her. She doesn't deserve you for a sister."

"I know… but I am afraid… not for me… I can take the worst that Blackfire can hit me with… but there are people in this tower that cannot…" Starfire looked away.

"What are you talking about…"

"Raven you do not understand… ever since that day we switched bodies I have seen you as more of a sister than I ever did Blackfire and believe me she will despise you for that. She will use the way I feel to hurt me… she doesn't love me, but she will not stand for anyone else taking her place." Starfire paused "You remember how she said that she was always having to rescue me… she was the reason I was in danger to begin with… you would never do that to me."

Starfire stood and took a few steps away from Raven, her acidic green eyes glued to the floor in front of her.

"Starfire… what brought this on now?" Raven asked standing but not approaching the taller girl.

"I had, I believe you call it, a nightmare…" Starfire paused her words failing her. If she could speak her native tongue it would be easier for her to express everything in the dream, but Raven would never understand her.

Starfire tried to explain it, but it became painfully clear she was incapable of describing what she saw.

"Stop… Starfire, I have an idea…" Raven said cutting her off gently.

"Yes… what is it…"

"Let me try a different approach…" Raven suggested then assumed her usual lotus position a few feet off the floor.

"Open your mind, let me in… let me see the dream through your eyes." Raven suggested "This will make it easier."

"Are you sure… it was extremely disturbing."

"Yes… believe me after what I see in my own nightmares it will take a lot to disturb me." Raven replied, "Or did you forget who my father is… he was the source of my nightmares."

Starfire hesitated then turned to face Raven and assumed the same position as Raven her mind open ready to allow the sorceress in.

Raven closed her eyes for a moment before reopening them to reveal them glowing white. She began to chant her mantra quietly and soon her soul-self left her body and entered Starfire's.

It always surprised Raven how quickly the others were willing to trust her and her magic to do things that they never imagined possible. She often inwardly doubted that she was worthy of the trust they put in her and vowed she would never do anything to make the others question why they gave her that trust even though she often saw herself as unworthy of it.

"Show me the dream… let me see it through your eyes." Starfire heard Raven's voice softly resonate in her mind and she showed her the horror she'd seen.

Raven was stunned when she looked at Blackfire smiling maliciously down at her. She didn't have to look down to realize she was in Starfire's body; this was Starfire's nightmare after all. She was on her hands and knees on the ground looking up at Blackfire.

"I should have known you would replace me, little sister, but… seriously…" Blackfire taunted, and Raven looked down to see her own battered, unconscious body, Blackfire's boot planted center mass on her chest, a small rivulet of blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. "You chose this pathetic excuse of a witch over me!"

"She is a sorceress" Starfire replied taking the term 'witch' as the insult it was intended to be "and is a better sister than you have ever been to me." Starfire replied enraged at what she was seeing. Blackfire kicked Raven's body towards Starfire who caught it gently and Raven couldn't tell if the dream version of herself was breathing or not. Starfire then put her behind herself and Raven realized through Starfire's actions that she was in fact still alive, but only just.

It took Raven a moment to realize that Starfire's grammar was so good because they weren't actually speaking English, she was just hearing everything in a way she could understand it they were actually speaking Tamaranean.

"She accepts me for who I am, never looks down on me when I do not say things the right way, I know sometimes I get on her nerves, but she never makes me feel like I am less than her the way you have, Blackfire." Starfire shot back at her older sister. It was true Starfire sometimes did get on Raven's nerves for being excessively cheerful, but she could never look down on the princess for her happiness just because she had to control her emotions didn't mean she could be angry at Starfire for being so free with hers. If anything, she found herself envying Starfire and her freedom to express herself so openly.

Raven could feel in those words the truth behind them. The way Starfire looked at her as a sister and loved her without question, without judgement of her past actions to hide her father's identity and the horror he would use her to bring forth. She was humbled by what she heard and felt as Starfire lectured this fictitious version of her older sister about what a true sister was and how she, Raven, the one that had at one time had so much trouble letting anyone in fit that definition better than Blackfire ever could.

"Oh, and that human boyfriend of yours… he's nothing… he is not worthy of a Tamaranean princess." Blackfire grinned using the term 'Human' as she did 'witch' like it was an insult.

"He is more worthy than you know…" Starfire protested tears blurring her vision. "He is as good as any warrior on Tamaran, and I stand by my heart and my heart belongs to him alone… it is not your place to choose the man I give my heart to, Blackfire… I know you do not have what is best for me at heart. I know my friends… my sister, Raven does, she stands beside me!"

Raven listened as it played out in front of her, her heart shattering in her chest as she listened to this dreamed up Blackfire tear Starfire apart. Soon the sorceress deemed she had seen enough, or actually too much and abandoned the dream for reality.

Raven came back to her own body her mind still filled with shock.

"Starfire… you know that would never happen…"

"Yes… she would do that… all of it and more if she knew how badly it would hurt me." Starfire replied standing and turning once again so she didn't look at Raven.

"What I said to her is true… about you, about Robin…" Starfire backhanded tears from her eyes as she spoke "I could not sleep after that… not after thinking of what she would do if she really knew that I felt that way about you all…"

"Starfire we are not helpless, we can fight back…" Raven assured her "I am a sorceress I won't fall so easily."

"I know this and so does Blackfire, she would find your weaknesses and exploit them… because she knows it would hurt me." Starfire sighed her eyes closed praying she would never have to see what she'd seen in that dream come to pass in real life.

Raven could feel Starfire's fears that one day she would see the events of her nightmare play out before her eyes and she had to admit it was a valid concern. Raven had only fought with Starfire in sparring practice one time and Raven remembered it well because of how unevenly matched they had been. Starfire had pulled her punches so much and they still hurt while Raven had hit her with everything she physically had and didn't even phase her. She knew she stood no chance against Blackfire; her magic would be the only way she could hope to last against Blackfire and even that was a long shot at best. Blackfire wouldn't pull her punches, she'd hit with everything she had, every star bolt fully powered every punch intended to hurt or kill.

"I once looked at Blackfire and admired her strength and looked at her like that was what an older sister was supposed to be, now I know better. Now I have a sister that I really love, and I know I will have to protect you from her because I am the only one that can." Starfire said.

Raven had gone back to making her tea mulling over some things in her mind.

"I just thought of something…" Raven said with an amused smile.

"What is that, sister?"

"If you want to be technical, I'm not really taking Blackfire's place… both of you are older than me." Raven said placing the bag in her cup before pouring the hot water over it to start the steeping process.

Starfire seemed to think for a moment, Raven was right, the sister analogy was correct, but Raven was in fact close to a year younger than Starfire. Raven was about to be 17 early the next month and Starfire would be 19 that fall.

"That is true… but that would not matter to Blackfire, if anything that knowledge would make you a better target to her."

She finished her tea and joined Starfire on the couch setting her cup on the table.

"Starfire this is going to sound weird, especially coming from me… but do you want a hug?"

"Of course…" Starfire said in excitement.

"Gently, Starfire…" Raven admonished almost regretting even opening her mouth to ask the question.

"Yes… of course" Starfire slowed down and gently hugged her.

"That's better" Raven replied returning the embrace.

"I am sorry if I have ever hurt you with my hugs… I only hug you because I do see you as my sister and sometimes I forget my own strength." Starfire admitted sheepishly.

"It's okay, Starfire… I know when it really counts you'd never hurt me." Raven replied not moving from the embrace as one would expect she would "I know you do it because you care, I just wish you would respect the fact that I don't always like to be touched or hugged."

The embrace finally broke.

"I have never understood that about you, sister, why is it you do not like the hugs?"

"There are a lot of reasons I don't like hugging… and… it's kind of hard for me to talk about it."

"Maybe as I let you into my mind, perhaps you could let me into yours so perhaps I would understand better."

"No, Starfire that isn't a good idea… there are places in my mind that… that you should never go… that nobody should ever go." Raven replied. "It is not that I can't explain why I don't like hugs, I can it's just…"

"Raven you can tell me, I will do my best to understand."

"As an empath when someone touches me their emotions blend with mine so much so that sometimes I can't tell my emotions from theirs." She paused "not only that I… I didn't grow up in an environment where hugs were normal, so I grew up not really expecting that. The only person that really hugged me before I came to Earth was my mother and that wasn't very often."

She didn't tell Starfire that sometimes that emotional blending became painful for her. She didn't want Starfire to feel worse about things than she did, but Starfire proved to be more perceptive than she had given her credit for.

"That is not all is it…" Starfire inferred.

Raven took a sip of her tea realizing, not for the first time, she hadn't given the other girl enough credit.

"This blending… it is not always pleasant for you… is it?"

Raven took another sip so she could use the mouth full of tea as an excuse not to reply but Starfire once again caught on to the unspoken response.

"Starfire… I…"

"No, I wish that you had felt that you could tell me this sooner, sister, I am sorry that I have never considered the way the hugging made you feel."

"Starfire…"

"I am not offended by this, sister; I am just said that you were afraid you would hurt me."

Raven reached out for the other girl's arm as she began to stand from the couch.

"It's okay, I don't mind you hugging me anymore, just… be careful okay?"

"I will."

"It was worse when we first met, before I figured out how to shield myself from the intensity of your emotions." Raven said, "It's getting better as time goes by."

"That is good…" Starfire smiled hugging Raven again. Then Starfire stopped as if she remembered something that she'd forgotten.

"Stay here, sister, I have a gift for you…"

"Starfire… wait…" Raven trailed as the Tamaranean took off towards her room for something Raven wasn't sure what.

Raven sat back on the couch waiting for Starfire to return and she began to analyze the conversation and suddenly she realized something that stuck out only on reviewing the conversation they'd had for the past few minutes. Somewhere during the course of the conversation Starfire had stopped calling her 'Raven' and started simply calling her 'sister'. She wasn't sure when this started, or what initiated this shift but if she were honest she didn't mind it.

Starfire returned with one of those cardboard display packages that low-cost costume jewelry stores use to lure tweens to buy their products, apparently it worked on teenage Tamaranean girls as well because here came Starfire with the obnoxious thing. Then Raven looked at the two necklaces that were on the card, across the two pendants it had the words "soul sisters" but each word was split in half down the middle, so the resulting words were only fully realized when the two pendants were placed side by side to complete the heart shape. It was a novel concept really, not something Raven would have chosen herself but unobtrusive enough that it wouldn't be constantly visible. The chain was short enough that when she didn't want it to be visible it would easily hide under her cloak until she decided to pull it out to look at it or in the unlikely event she wanted to show it off.

"Starfire…"

"You do not like it…" Starfire said sounding disappointed.

"I never said that…" Raven replied as Starfire took one of the halves and put it on herself her half had the "ul" of soul and the "ters" of Sisters leaving Raven to have the half with the first letters of the words.

"Can you help me with mine?" Raven asked.

"Of course, sister." Starfire smiled enthusiastically.

In reality Raven could have done it herself easily but chose to ask Starfire to do it as she knew that would make Starfire happy.

"Starfire, I noticed something…"

"Yes…"

"You keep calling me sister…"

"Do you wish me to stop?"

"No… I'm fine with it… now the guys might have some questions… but I'm fine… sister…" she tested the term herself to see if she could see herself using it regularly, probably not, but the occasional change would be just enough to keep their male counterparts on their toes, and Raven had to admit part of her enjoyed throwing the guys for a loop once in a while, keep their brains sharp.

The room fell into a comfortable silence as the two girls sat together watching as the first rays of the sun began to light up the sky.

"Want to join me for some morning meditation?" Raven asked.

"Of course, sister." Starfire smiled as Raven finished the last of her cup of tea, then put it in the kitchen before returning.

It was seven when Cyborg came into the ops room to see Raven and Starfire meditating together in front of the grand picture window overlooking the city.

"O… kay" he said drawing out the word for several beats. He was used to Raven being up this early, but Starfire was not normally awake before him much less going through Raven's morning meditation routine with her. He thought about asking but decided against it, if he was meant to know, they would tell him.

"Want to go to the mall of shopping later, sister?" Starfire asked.

"Sure…" Raven replied without her usual pause to think about what was asked. She also didn't seem to notice or mind the fact that Starfire had referred to her as 'sister' rather than by her name.

"Um… yeah that's really weird" Cyborg muttered to himself as he stopped mixing waffle batter long enough to scratch his head, what had he missed?

The End