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The robot’s hand is a thing of beauty. Perfect, humanoid steel all the way to the wrist; green, red, and white wires spilling like octopus tentacles from the severed end. Robin curls it into a fist and marvels at each tick, tick, tick of the finger joints. Full articulation. Already better than last month.
He has no idea how Slade does it, but his tech keeps improving. Maybe one more hour, a bit more puzzling, and then he’ll find out how the—
“Robin! Get in here!”
Instant panic. Maybe the security’s failed and someone’s broken in, how will they manage if the girls are at the mall, they’re two of their strongest fighters short—
Robin races down the warren of corridors, bursts through the living room doors, skids to a halt at the top of the stairs.
“What’s wrong?”
…The kitchen’s not on fire. There’s no monster chewing the furniture.
Just Cyborg and Beast Boy, watching him excitedly from the couch.
“Good, you made it!” Beast Boy says. “Throwback TV are doing reruns of all three-hundred-and-fifty-one episodes of The Forest of the Fae—” (“Fifty-two, if you include the Christmas special,” Cyborg adds) “—and we’re trying to work out which characters we are. Cy is Dathi, the engineer from the Wood Fae, obviously. I’m Ragnor, the falconer who’s a hit with the ladies. Raven is Mordra, the Nightmare Forest’s spellcaster, and Star’s Princess Lunari because of her shiny powers, and you…well, that’s it. We don’t know about you.”
Robin wants to punch something, and hard.
“That’s why you called me out here?” he snaps. “To ask who I’d be in some stupid—”
“It’s not some stupid show,” Cyborg corrects, “it changed special effects forever. And—” His jaw drops. “Wait, you’ve never seen…?”
“No.”
Cyborg and Beast Boy stare at each other in horror.
“But it’s a classic!” Beast Boy says. He flies across the room as a bluejay and tugs on Robin’s cape, pulls him towards the screen. “C’mon, dude—” (he spits out a feather) “—sit down, you’ve not missed much, it’s—”
Robin shakes him off. Beast Boy looks disappointed. (That almost makes him feel guilty. Almost.)
“I have work to do.”
“C’mon, man,” Cyborg says. “You’ve been in there all day. Watch some TV with us.” His eyes – red and human – glint slyly. “Or else.”
Robin scowls, lifts his chin.
“You can’t threaten me.”
He nearly adds because I’m your leader, but that would be petty. The Titans need to be equals. One big slip up, and Beast Boy might go back to calling him sir.
“Rooster,” is all Beast Boy says, his smile devious. “Crowing. Outside the office. All evening.”
Robin’s skin chills. First comes the dread, then the anger.
“And how am I supposed to catch Slade, if you—”
“Robin, if you burn out,” Cyborg says levelly, “you’re not catching anyone.”
The point finally gets through. Robin groans.
“Fairies aren’t my thing.”
“These ones have swords,” Cyborg says. “...And gunships, in season seven. Things got pretty weird near the end.”
They look so genuinely eager for him to join in. Robin’s not used to that. In Gotham, there weren’t many chances to hang out with anyone his age.
Having friends, rather than roommates, sounds better than standing on a leader’s pedestal.
Less…lonely.
“One episode,” he allows. “One.”
Beast Boy cheers.
“Yes! I can’t believe you get to experience the Witch Invasion arc for the first time…”
Robin tangles into a knot of limbs at the other end of the couch.
The show is…old. Really old, going by the grainy picture and the audio that sounds like it was recorded in a tin can. Robin’s mind is still on the Sladebot; he spends the first twenty minutes inwardly complaining and hunting for plot holes.
But…the pyrotechnics are good. And while it makes no sense for the fae of Magisteria to use katanas and throwing knives and European rapiers (plus the costume department clearly couldn’t tell their crossbows from their longbows), fine, it’s engaging. Robin starts resenting the ad breaks.
At the start of Episode Eight, a woman carrying a scepter materializes in flowing robes. Beast Boy sighs.
“Dude, she’s so my type.”
Cyborg bursts out laughing.
“The sorceress?”
“Yeah! She’s blonde, she cracks all those jokes…and she loves flying on those giant birds, I bet she’d love a spin on my moped!”
“Is that the moped you don’t own?”
“Yet!” A little defensively: “go on then, who’s your type?”
The Princesses of the Woods are all lined up, ready to receive magical enchantments. Cyborg studies them.
“Galia?” he says. “The armor she forges is crazy. Or Hera? She seems—”
Beast Boy rolls his eyes.
“Who am I kidding, you don’t need a type. Girls like you without you even trying.” (Cyborg shrugs humbly, but he’s grinning. It’s the truth.) “Robin? What about you?”
Robin scrambles for a newspaper and holds it up like a shield.
“Dunno,” he says, staring at the city’s crime statistics.
“Dude, you must have one. C’mon, you can tell us.”
Robin glances over the top of the page. They’re waiting.
Trying to…bond with him?
“Um…”
I can do this. He spent most of his youth training himself not to look at girls – and now he has to do it on command. Can't be that hard.
Robin scans his options. Warily lets his mind run free, no filter attached.
The princesses are armed, which is a good start. The girl in blue has a cool dagger, but she’s a bit short, whereas the redhead…she must be at least six foot. She’d easily crush him in an arm-wrestling match. Combine that with long lashes and a soft face, and—
“Tall girls?” Robin manages. “Tall girls…who can fight?”
Cyborg nudges Beast Boy. They both smirk.
“Dude,” Beast Boy says, “you just described Star.”
Robin’s face heats to the temperature of the sun.
“No, I didn’t!”
“You so did—”
The doors swipe open. Robin’s never been more grateful for an interruption.
The girls are back. Raven isn’t carrying anything. Starfire’s arms, however, are laden with shopping bags.
“Greetings!” she says cheerily. “Raven informed me about the sale, where items are sold for mysteriously low prices, so I made several purchases!”
She sounds very proud of herself. Robin smiles.
“Raven?” Beast Boy calls as she heads for the kitchen. “What’s your type?”
Her eyes go bright white.
“What,” is her icy reply.
“Woah, no-no-no, I don’t mean any of us!” he splutters, his ears drooping in panic. “We were talking about ours, and then you came past…!”
A whisper of black magic disappears from around her hands.
“My type,” she repeats, calmer.
“Uh-huh.”
“…Fictional.”
Then she’s busy making tea, and the conversation is over. Beast Boy shrugs, as if to say well, that’s more of an answer than I expected.
“Star?” he says, pivoting her way. “What about you?”
“Is this an official system?” she asks nervously. “Must I divide my suitors into particular categories?”
“Huh? No, it’s who you think is cute. Attractive-cute, not, like…kittens.”
“Ah. I see.” She lets out an awkward little laugh. “In truth, I found every Tamaranean hero appealing. Blackfire and I had an illustrated book of them, when we were small.” She flushes. “The men had large muscles. And nice, long hair.”
Robin taps his foot on the floor, suddenly restless.
My hair isn’t long.
The thought just…pops up. Unnerved by its existence, Robin fixates on an article about bank heists instead.
“But, if I must be honest,” Starfire continues, “despite my sister’s mockery, I preferred Targelk the Brave.”
She looks at them sheepishly, as if this is an embarrassing confession.
“Girl, we’re gonna need some context,” Cyborg says gently. Sometimes she needs reminding.
“Oh! Targelk had black hair, which is less common on my world. And though he was diminutive in size, he was a determined fighter. No-one wielded an axe as well as him. I…admired his tenacity.”
So…I have a shot?
There’s no denying it, this time. The thought is vivid as a billboard.
Bad, Robin thinks, furious at himself, bad heroism, bad leadership. Bad, bad, bad. He imagines tearing the thought apart, stuffing it into a lockbox. Starfire is his friend.
Pointedly, unhelpfully, Beast Boy says: “Robin likes tall girls.”
Starfire looks to Robin.
“You do?”
Her voice pitches up on the second word. Her usual curiosity, surely. Not...hope?
“Y-yeah,” he says. Her eyes are so very green. “Maybe. I don’t really think about it much.”
She’s not looking away. What shade is that? Emeralds, spring grass…?
“Ahem.” Cyborg has cleared his throat loudly; Robin startles out of that particular wondering. “Wanna watch, Star?”
Robin moves his legs so she can sit down. He notes, for the first time, that while Cyborg and Beast Boy are constantly poking and pushing and climbing over each other like squabbling puppies, Starfire always leaves a gap between their bodies. As if touching him would carry more meaning.
“It is good to see you,” she says quietly as Cyborg hits PLAY on the remote. “Recently, you have been working very hard.”
Robin smiles – not because the burden isn’t chipping away at him, but because that’s the quickest way to reassure her.
“I just hate thinking he’s out there, hurting people.”
“If you require our assistance…”
“Don’t worry about me. I’m okay.”
He’s not. He won’t be until he knows who Slade is, and what he wants. But the offer is appreciated. “This…this Targelk guy you mentioned. Who were his enemies?”
“He had only one,” Starfire says. “Lorr, the mastermind with an all-seeing blue eye.”
Robin’s hand clenches on the couch cushions.
“And did Targelk ever…bring him down?”
“There was nothing Targelk could not do,” she says warmly, and Robin feels a weight lift from his shoulders.
Another title sequence. A new character appears in the NEXT TIME preview, her hands trailing glitter.
“Princess Lunari!” Beast Boy says. Starfire’s eyes shine.
“Ooh. I like her magic.”
The episode opens with Lunari pacing in a cave.
“Your Grace,” says a voice. “I bring news from the east.”
A knight enters and kneels at her feet. Twin claymores cross his back. He offers his hand, and she takes it.
“Roran,” the princess says, her pretty face worried. “Have our defences been breached?”
“I wanna try those out,” Robin whispers to Starfire, pointing at the swords. He mimes swinging one; she giggles. “Fine, if I’ve gotta be someone, I’m Roran,” he says, projecting to the others.
“Called it,” Cyborg says.
“What – because of his weapons?”
Going by his reaction, no.
Roran takes off his helmet. His black hair falls free, matted and dirty from battle. Then he stands up – only as tall as Lunari’s shoulder – and…kisses her.
Whatever Roran says next, Robin doesn’t hear a word of it.
“Wait,” he yelps, “they’re together?”
“Since Season One,” Beast Boy says. “Are you even watching?”
Robin looks at Roran in Lunari’s arms. Their loving expressions make him feel like he’s up high, his feet teasing a roof’s edge. Other people are scared of heights. He’s scared of—
“I’m done.” He gets up with an angry flick of his cape. “Tell me what happens next.”
Beast Boy protests, but Robin stalks outside, not sure if he’s mad at the guys, himself, or the TV show.
He storms into the office and slams the door.
They can keep their ridiculous show, Robin thinks, sitting down and cracking his laptop open. I have important stuff to do.
…Yep. Just him. In the dingy office. Doing important stuff.
Him and a blank, conclusion-less crime report, being stared at by infinite copies of Slade’s face.
Someone laughs, many corridors away.
I don’t want to be in here, Robin thinks. A kind of heresy.
There’s a knock at the door.
“Come in,” he groans. Probably the boys, come to drag him back…
No - it’s Starfire. She’s holding a DVD case.
“We have finished the season,” she says. “I thought you would like to…catch up.” She uses the phrase delicately, no doubt testing it out.
The case’s bright colors are jarring in the gloom.
“…Thanks.”
“I know that television show was frivolous,” she says, “but perhaps such things are good for your wellbeing.” She eyes the machine parts strewn over his desk. “Perhaps…this is not.”
“I’m not good at frivolous,” Robin replies dryly.
He starts to type. She hovers behind him silently, her presence twisting up his mind like the red string on the walls. He wants her to leave. He wants her to stay.
Eventually, Starfire leaves the DVD on his desk and mutters a quiet goodnight.
“What happened to Roran in the finale?” Robin asks begrudgingly as she reaches the door.
“He married the princess,” she says.
“Oh. Good…good for them.”
She really does look like Lunari. But better. Even more beautif—no, that’s another thing he shouldn’t be thinking.
Starfire is watching carefully.
“Does that make you want to see more?”
“I mean…” Robin swallows. “I want to see the battles.”
“Of course,” she says, and he’s quite sure she can see right through him – and sure that whatever she’s worked out, she’s going to keep it to herself. “Then…we shall see you tomorrow?”
The hallway is lit a soft yellow. Far more appealing than this dark box of a room.
Robin tidies up, then goes to her on the threshold. He smiles at her in the light.
“I think I’ll find the time,” he says.