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Robin really was trying to fall asleep.
It wasn't necessarily the bruises and scrapes from the night's fight that were keeping him awake. Nor was it the thunder that crashed outside and rattled the tower's walls.
He felt...troubled.
Slade's words were ringing in his ears. He had his suspicions that the mask's neurotoxin was only manifesting the worst version of Slade Robin's mind could imagine, the most ruthless and terrifying depiction possible; nevertheless...
"I am the thing that keeps you up at night. The evil that haunts every dark corner of your mind. I will never stop. And neither will you."
A part of Robin felt like it was not beyond the real Slade to say such things, to beat Robin within inches of his life.
That scared him. It shook loose the innermost fears Robin had.
Only now, in this reflection did Robin fully understand that he really could have died that night.
He sat up, drawing his knees to his chest.
His heart was racing again, pulse thudding in his ears.
Robin barley realized he was hyperventilating—
Suddenly, three hesitant knocks landed on his door.
"Robin?"
The door slid open to reveal Starfire, a sad, cautious frown upon her face.
"What...what is it?" He stuttered, swallowing harshly.
"I am here to make an apology."
He blinked.
"What for?"
She looked away.
"I apologize for not believing you. For losing the faith in you."
He huffed out a laugh.
"You had every right to, Star. So you don't have to apologize. I wouldn't have believed myself either."
His expression became unreadable, stoicity only betrayed by his trembling body.
"If anything, I should be the one to apologize to you. I should never have lost my temper with you, taken it out on you. I'm so sorry, Starfire."
His voice sounded so fragile, like a leaf barely clinging onto its tree.
She had never heard him sound like that.
Starfire willed away the tears in her eyes. He didn't need to see them right now.
"Despite all the bad guys I've fought, and all the close calls that have happened, I never realized....no, I never really took the time to think how serious it was. How...scary nearly dying is."
He wrung his hands helplessly.
"Why? Why does he scare me so much? Of all the villains in the world, why him?"
"Robin. It is okay for you to feel afraid."
She'd turned to face him, hands gently resting on his shoulders.
"Everyone feels afraid sometimes. Is that not, as your saying goes, what makes us human?"
Human...
"I'm human," he croaked.
Tears were falling freely from the edges of his mask.
He laughed through his tears.
"These bruises... these stupid tears...that's what it took to remind me of something so obvious?" He said to himself.
Starfire watched her friend, their courageous leader in the way one watches a candle flicker and die.
And it was Slade who had been the wind to snuff out Robin's flame.
She had to rekindle it, however she could.
"Robin, listen to me. You are human. But you are also the bravest person I have ever known. You are our very strong leader, Robin of the Teen Titans!"
Starfire determinedly held his gaze.
"But the strong are also allowed moments of weakness. On my world, even our mightiest warriors cry."
She smiled.
"What I am attempting to say is that the strength they build to overcome weakness is what makes them even greater. Give yourself the permission for feeling weakness for a moment. Your friends are here to help you overcome it."
Robin was speechless.
How had he managed to make a friend as wonderful as Starfire? Or Raven? Or Beast Boy and Cyborg?
He found himself collapsing upon her, hugging her desperately.
She was a touchable light. A beacon he could hold, and trust to guide him.
Her arms were around him now too, and her hand was rubbing soothing circles into his back.
Some floodgate gave within him, and Robin was softly crying into her shoulder.
He hadn't wept this much in what felt like eons; not since he was a child, sheltered from the gloomy rain of a far too soon funeral by an umbrella over his head and a comforting hand on his shoulder...
Robin had put aside his tears and stowed them away in the deepest parts of his mind.
Starfire had found them, and now his mask was damp with them.
The storm continued outside, but it didn't touch them or the private moment being shared between two close friends. Not because the walls of the tower stood in the way, but because, in such an embrace, the storm was the farthest thing from their minds now.
Robin had dozed off against her, the slow, even breathing of his slumber more comforting than Starfire cared to admit. His exhaustion had finally gotten the better of him.
She smiled, and eased him down to the pillows, then quietly slid the covers over him.
Her hand hesitated from removing itself from his cheek.
She gingerly swiped away the tear tracks.
Then, in a moment of courage, Starfire kissed his forehead lightly. It was something her mother had done to her when Starfire was just barely awake.
"Pleasant sloorvaks, Robin," she whispered sweetly.
She soundlessly departed from his room.
"Star..." Robin murmured, before receding into deep, blissfully undisturbed slumber.
The next morning, Robin awoke, not quite sure why his forehead felt so warm.