Concealed

Return

Ragged breaths.

breaths I didn't deserve. 

Blood.

Why does it always end in blood?

"You know me, princess."

 you know who I am.

 and what I have done.

"So why the hell do you care so damn much?"

-

Chapter One

"Starfire?" 

Robin awkwardly shuffled away to prevent the activation of the motion-automated door, squelching his toes into the carpet like if he pressed hard enough he would be dissolved into particles of dust, away from the situation. 

The contrast between his past actions was almost laughable. Within a month of Starfire's, well, dramatic entrance to earth, they had barged into each other's rooms as if their bond spanned decades. Now he was relegated to the boundaries of a stranger. Or worse, Raven.

"Yes?" Her distant echo was muffled by the boundary she refused to break.

No, wrong analogy. Raven at least opened her door a sliver. Robin officially classified this as a Batman behavior, then cranked out a second attempt. 

"I wanted to let you know we're assembling in the common room." Short and simple. No room for conflict there.

"And you could not have announced this over our communicators? There is a radio that sends frequencies between each mobile device." She regurgitated the explanation of his own transmission system with the formality of a tight-laced teacher.

Ok, I was wrong. "Well, this one's kinda personal. Cyborg said it's pretty important." 

Robin didn't exactly know why this meeting was so crucial that Cy would send him to make the announcement. Sure, the weariness of trauma had frayed the knots of their bond, but didn't that happen with all old friends?  Everything was fine. This was still just 'typical roommate stuff'.

Right?

A whisp of strawberry interrupted his reminscing with an irritated coo. Adolescence had molded Starfire into a deity of a silhouette, the lilac hugging her curves and dips like a lover's caress. The brazen contradiction between her golden navel and the lavender bodysuit pushed her further into the depths of undeniable appeal. 

"I am pleasantly surprised. The initiation of gatherings has been rare as of late." Star's rolled her neck with a contented sigh, the stretch mundane to her and tantalizing to Robin.

"Uh, yeah. I'm glad." Robin scratched the base of his mussed obsidian hair, a nervous tic.

"I am glad that you are glad." Starfire's brow perked with a subtle side-eye. The proper, formal grammar that she resorted to during arguments upped the ante of the uncomfortable tension. 

"Good." Was there something he was supposed to say? Starfire pivoted on her heels in a huff, tired of hinging her good day on Robin's failure to collect his bearings. 

She was tired of a lot of things.

Real smooth, Grayson. Robin almost envied the false narrative spread in the tabloids. Maybe that "tamer of the wildest hearts" the press made him out to be would understand what alien girls wanted. Hell, he would even settle to know how to talk to one.

Robin drooped his head in resignation and followed. He noticed her pace quicken 2 steps for every one of his own, a childish tactic to ensure Starfire would never be less than six footlengths away from another awkward encounter.