Chapter Text
The Teen Titans had been a team for what felt, to them, a lot like forever. They’d met so long ago they almost couldn’t remember ever not knowing each other, and in that time they’d grown close. Very close. They were closer than most blood relatives could ever hope to be. They were an ever-changing and yet ever-the-same adoptive family of misfits born from strife and forged in flame, and all of them were quite proud of the fact. They trusted each other without question after facing so many trials and tribulations together, after having their bonds tested time and time again only to find their loyalties nearly always lay with each other.
Given the overall closeness of the group and the nigh-unbreakable bond of trust they all shared after knowing each other for as long as they had, it’s predictable that some members of the group saw others in a… More than friendly way. Crushes among groups of friends are common, after all. True and totally realized romantic love is a tad more rare―but it’s often said that the strongest of romantic relationships are born of a close friendship. For all intents and purposes each and every one of them had proven themselves to be a trusted and worthy partner to each other member, though at times some pairs would butt heads over small things.
And what is a romantic relationship if not a partnership? And what would a relationship be if the two of whom it consisted didn’t occasionally see things differently and clash over it? Argument isn’t always a bad thing. At times it’s the only way some things can be discussed―even if those things may not see much real discussion until the argument is over.
All of that said, some dating between the team members was nearly inevitable. They already had the necessary interpersonal skills with one another to at least start a relationship, after all. And, with all things considered, it should be fairly obvious that it didn’t come as much of a surprise to much of anyone at all when Starfire and Raven finally moved past awkward flirting late one spring and admitted their feelings to one another. It came as even less of a surprise that they felt the same for each other and began dating right away.
There was, naturally, some backlash, but a few well-spoken words from Robin and well-aimed death glares from Raven promptly silenced the critics. And that’s not even accounting for the several thousand supporters who would have literally fought for them had the need arisen.
Thankfully, it never did.
Nothing much changed among the team after the girls entered into their relationship―there was no bitterness or jealousy from the other members, no decrease in the respect they all had for each other, and no real indication that any of them were uncomfortable with the union. In fact, they boys were all wholly and openly supportive of it, much to Raven’s relief and Starfire’s eternal delight.
Really, the only thing that changed was that Raven and Starfire holding hands took on a new meaning… And seeing the two of them shyly intertwine their fingers, cheeks almost glowing with an embarrassed and excited flush before one of them, most commonly Starfire, leaned closer to the other and pressed a quick kiss to her lips or cheek became incredibly common both inside the tower and out.
Their dynamics in battle didn’t see much change, either, although they did appear to be a tad more protective of each other than they were before. A keen eye could see, as well, that they tended to stay closer to each other on missions, and that their eyes constantly strafed from their surroundings to each other. They were always looking out for each other now. Always.
This extended, somewhat surprisingly, even to them now sharing a bedroom―although the other Titans didn’t yet know about that part. Raven simply didn’t want to deal with Beast Boy and Cyborg’s immature and perverted theories on why they shared a bedroom, and Starfire was happy to keep it hush hush to keep Raven from having to fight with them about it. Feasibly, they could have told Robin, of course, because Robin was typically the most reasonable member of the team, but… No. If they weren’t yet telling Beast Boy or Cyborg, they weren’t telling Robin either.
It was only fair.
And that they shared a bedroom didn’t necessarily mean that they shared a bed, as they often didn’t for a variety of reasons. Raven spent most nights studying her tomes in a specially prepared section of the room until she inevitably fell asleep leaned against one of the bookcases. Bad for her back? Certainly. But would she stop? Unlikely.
Starfire, for her part, spent most nights actually in bed, though most often she laid awake at night quietly talking to Raven across the room until she drifted off to sleep. Sometimes Raven talked her to sleep. Sometimes she talked Raven to sleep without realizing it. Sometimes, although it was rare and had only happened twice so far, Raven sang her to sleep with an Azarathian lullaby.
Those were Starfire’s favorites. She’d never slept so well in her life, to be entirely honest. But the same could be said for simply sleeping in the same room as Raven―it granted her an unrivaled sensation of peace and allowed her to rest very deeply. And, though Raven never mentioned it, Starfire’s very presence in the room had much the same affect on her.
On the few occasions they did share a bed, it was with no shortage of blushing and quiet giggles as they got situated. They usually ended up facing each other, legs intertwined and arms wrapped around each other. Raven tucked her face into the crook of Star’s neck and Star happily buried hers into Raven’s violet tresses. It was… Far more comfortable than either of them ever anticipated it being.
But that was all they did. Their relationship was still fresh, and neither of them was interested in taking things any further for the time being―or ever, for that matter. They knew they may change their minds and hit the next few bases at some point in their relationship, of course, but for now… For now just cuddling was more than enough. They were happy sticking to kisses that didn’t even qualify as first base, thanks.
Raven and Starfire’s relationship was still relatively new when BB suggested, one hot summer day, that they all go on an outing to the beach. They were still blushing just at holding hands, and turning into glowing balls of embarrassment at kissing each other… And Starfire still very much wanted to impress her girlfriend whenever she could.
The group spent a good hour after they first arrived just splashing around and basking in the contrast between the lukewarm water and the sweltering air. Even Raven chose to abandon her cloak and get some sun, though she spent a good deal of her time in the water carefully levitating orbs of it over BB’s head while he was distracted and promptly allowing the bubble to burst and soak him with water that had cooled considerably under her influence. This tactic got several undignified shrieks from BB and several laughs from all of his friends, much to his consternation.
Starfire’s laughter was, of course, only rivalled in volume by Cyborg’s enormous, booming chuckle. And, though Robin may have been the only one who noticed, Raven’s laughter was less amusement in response to her own prank and more a knee-jerk reaction in response to Starfire pulling her into a tight hug and twirling her around as she told her what a good joke it was the first time. And after that, her laughter was clearly more a response to Starfire’s.
Robin could see the unbridled adoration in her eyes.
And, as if she knew that, she cast him a smile… And dropped the next bubble of water on him, causing him to very nearly jump right out of the water with a shout of surprise. He frowned, though only slightly, before giving in and smiling, sending Raven a wink and a thumbs up while the others weren’t looking. She returned the gesture before turning her gaze back to her girlfriend.
Starfire, herself, was now making her way out deeper in the water, stretching her arms above her head as she went. Raven admired the way her hair fanned out behind her like a cape once she reached a depth that forced her to swim rather than walk. And, secretly, she may have also admired the way that Star’s swimsuit clung to her body―but she’d never admit to that. Not without a fight.
“Hey, Rae,” BB called, currently in the form of a dolphin, “Can you judge me and Star’s race?”
Lips twisting into a new, more subtle smile, she tore her gaze from her girlfriend and lifted her brows. “Why can’t Robin do it? He’d be a more neutral party.”
“You’re always the best judge!” BB explained, “And I trust you not to give the win to Star just ‘cuz she’s your girlfriend.”
“Even though I am going to win anyway, friend.” Star teased.
BB whistled and chirped in a way Raven presumed was meant to be derisive. It was followed by a short rant about how he was a dolphin, and how dolphins were ‘like the cheetahs of aquatic mammals’―classic Beast Boy.
Star just giggled her way through the entire rant, knowing full well she’d distracted him from his original point. Thankfully, he eventually caught on and stopped.
“You sly dog,” He said, wagging a fin at her, “You had me monologuing.”
Ignoring him past giving him a wink, she turned to Raven, “So will you be our judge, love?”
Smiling affectionately, Raven agreed without further argument.
Star, for her part, always being eager to impress her girlfriend, spent much of her time in the water doing tricks: underwater backflips, races against BB as various aquatic mammals, carrying her around on her back―anything of the sort that she could do to get Raven’s attention. Anything that could make Raven cheer for her or laugh. Especially things that could make Raven laugh. She loved to hear Raven laugh.
After a while, she had an idea. A wonderful idea. A trick that would likely get a lot of cheering from Raven, if not from the others as well. But there was one issue: where to do it.
She eyed the nearby cliffs with a rather critical eye, trying to identify if she could actually pull off the trick. Were there any cliffs high enough? Were there any far enough out she could avoid hitting another on her way down?
Finally, she spotted one just perfect high enough for her trick.
So, leaving the water for a moment with an excited, “Raven, love, watch!” she flew up to the cliff she’d identified. After a quick glance to be sure that Raven was, indeed, watching her, she thought briefly about what, exactly, she should do. In the end she decided that something that looked simple, but pretty, would have the best results the first time. She had to leave room for improvement, after all.
She backed up a bit, got a running start, and dived gracefully off of the rocks. By her own estimate, she pulled off a beautiful swan dive. She sailed down through the air with a wide grin, closing her eyes tight in preparation of impact with the water, bringing her hands up above her head to break the surface. Warm water splashed up onto her face, coated her wind-chilled arms, and then her head was submerged, followed by the rest of her body. By all accounts the dive went off without a hitch, and by the cheering she heard from the others before her head went under Raven and the others had very much liked the trick.
She didn’t have a whole lot of time to dwell on it, however.
Less than a full second after her body was fully beneath the water, she felt pain as she hit something hard, head snapping back.
For a moment, she guessed she lost consciousness. Everything went numb. She blinked her eyes open and stared down at the bottom, just inches from her face. But the water had looked so much deeper than this… How did this happen? Why did this happen? Ultimately she had no answers and knew she likely never would. No point lingering on it for now.
Feeling fairly fed up with staring at the bottom of the unexpectedly shallow water, she puffed out a small breath and prepared to turn over and swim the short distance back to the surface…
Only to find she couldn’t.
Her arms wouldn’t move. Her legs wouldn’t move. Nothing would move except her eyes and mouth. She managed to turn her head slightly, but it didn’t help―it just made her panic because absolutely nothing below her shoulders would respond to her commands. It took all the willpower she had to not start hyperventilating on the spot; she was underwater, after all, and drowning on top of not being able to move her body was highly undesirable. If she didn’t surface soon, one of her friends would come and get her, right? They’d notice she wasn’t coming up for air, right?
But what if they didn’t?
No. No thinking like that. They’d come get her.
… She just hoped they came soon.
Suddenly, there were warm hands on her sides and a familiar pair of grey-skinned legs next to her.
Raven rolled her and lifted her the short distance to the surface, and the first thing Starfire did was draw in a breath just this side of hysterical. Her eyes sought Raven’s out, and she wanted so desperately to grab her hand, to wrap her arms around her neck, to just grab her and reassure herself that Raven was there. Raven’s own indigo eyes stared back at her.
“Star?” She questioned.
“I can’t move,” Star managed to gasp out, “Raven, I ca-” Her panic seemed to increase at having admitted it out loud, a gasp cutting her off mid-word, “I can’t move!”
There was nothing scarier than seeing the panic she felt light in her girlfriend’s eyes.
But Raven could still move―she could get help. She could panic but she could at least get help. That was Starfire’s only comfort as she began to hyperventilate.
“Robin!” Raven called, tone urgent and commanding, “Call an ambulance! Now!”
Star didn’t hear a single question or argument about it, just the somewhat distant sounds of Robin rushing out of the water. And then she heard Beast Boy and Cyborg worriedly asking what was wrong, what had happened, if she was okay, and if she wasn’t already hyperventilating she was sure she would have started crying. Their concern was… Incredibly touching. But it couldn’t touch her right now. It couldn’t overcome the panic racing through her veins. Raven called back to them that she wasn’t sure, but that she wanted them to go with Robin.
Star didn’t hear any arguments about that, either, which was curious, but… Also understandable. Robin had already listened without question―BB and Cyborg not listening that easily would lead to a fight that they simply didn’t have time for in an emergency. Additionally… Her girlfriend was terrifying when she was angry.
“Starfire,” Raven’s voice made her eyes snap back to her face, though she wasn’t sure when she’d looked away, “Breathe, darling.”
She tried. She did. But it was hard when she still couldn’t move and everything felt wrong because of it.
“Koriand’r,” Raven cooed, voice more gentle and soothing than Starfire had ever heard it, “My sunshine, my stars… Relax. Breathe. Everything’s going to be okay. We’ll get through this.”
Focusing on her voice, Starfire tried to draw in a slow breath. Raven maintained eye contact with her, continued to speak gentle words of comfort and encouragement. But breathing wasn’t something she could focus on right now, as much as she wanted to. She kept getting herself under control only to remember that she couldn’t move.
Her vision started going spotty around the same time she heard Robin yell that the ambulance was on its way.
Some time after that everything went black, and the last thing that she heard before completely losing consciousness was Raven calling her name. Dimly she felt bad for worrying her girlfriend so much. She felt bad for causing so much trouble for the sake of a stupid trick. But even under the blanket of unconsciousness she could feel that something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong.
Despite Raven’s prior assurances to the contrary, Star could feel how wrong things were.
And that was really all she felt for a long time.