FicWad

Chapter One: And The Game Begins

"I do not believe I want it."

"C'mon, just try it!"

"I believe this is a trick of the treats, yes?"

"…That's not exactly how that phrase goes, and it's not even Halloween, Starfire. So no."

"And why would we trick you? Try it already!"

"I am… the scared."

"Don't be, Star. I'm—we're right here. It'll be okay." Robin flashed the alien girl a nervous yet encouraging smile, hoping no one caught his slip up. She returned his smile, but still looked slightly unsure. The rest of the team seemed to be growing ever impatient over the alien girl's hesitation. What was the big deal? She had fed them all much worse. Her 'gluba…sherpin..' or whatever alien dishes she decided to whip up and force upon her friends, yet she was this hesitant over something so simple? So normal?

Beast Boy's chin was resting on the side of the table with a slight pout of impatience plastered on his face. Cyborg was attempting to be encouraging, his oversized palm resting upon Starfire's shoulder. Raven had been genuinely (but no so obviously) excited to introduce Starfire to something new that she too actually secretly loved, but had since grown bored with this back and forth of trying to convince the naïve girl that it was safe and not some kind of hoax on her behalf. She had a dusty old book in her hands, its tattered cover was shielding all of her pale features except the upper portion of her eyes. Robin, as per use, was sitting patiently beside the foreign beauty, resting his hand over hers. It looked like an innocent gesture; a guiltless touch of encouragement from one friend to the other but if anyone were to see what was going on inside of Robin with just this touch: the quickened pulse, the fluttering bubbles in his stomach, the lack of any thought other than her; they would see it was more than just a friendly touch for him.

He quickly pushed down the rising blush at the thought of how intimate this touch could've been, and lifted the fork still sitting untouched on the table, using it to scoop up a small piece of the fluffy, off-white substance and held it out for Starfire to taste. "Just one taste. Trust us; are you ready?" Robin spoke in a soft, comforting tone and gave her another reassuring smile. She took in a deep breath, wrinkled her nose, then slowly closed her eyes and opened her mouth for Robin to feed it to her. He happily obliged and carefully placed the end of the fork slightly past her lips so she could do the rest. She chewed softly, moving it around in her mouth as if still questioning its taste. Immediately after swallowing the substance, Starfire let out a happy "eep!" sound and clapped her hands together. "Wonderful! This cake of the cheese is marvelous!"

Robin flashed her a crooked smile; her innocent naivety of Earth was always something that Robin secretly enjoyed. He loved how excited Starfire would get over simple things that his fellow earthlings, and even himself, took advantage of daily. It was humbling. And he also, selfishly, loved being the one to show her these things. "See? I told you it wasn't going to taste like 'cheese' on cake."

With the winter holidays coming up, the team was sitting around and talking about some of their favorite holiday treats. When Raven admitted that one of her favorites was cheesecake (after much, much prodding from Beastboy to 'join in'), Starfire had made a very disgusted face, assuming that this particular dessert was something along the lines of a frosting covered birthday cake with layers of sliced cheddar cheese on top of it. The team immediately decided they would have to show her what it really was.

The overjoyed alien snatched the fork from Robin and quickly began to devour the rest of her slice within only mere seconds. The rest of the team laughed happily, watching their excited teammate enjoy the dessert they had finally convinced her to try.

"Hey, I want a slice too!" Beastboy shouted, grabbing up a plate and placing a slice of the delicate dessert onto it with Cyborg and Robin quickly following suit. Raven, shockingly, set down her book and also grabbed a slice. Just as she was about to take a bite, everyone stopped and stared at her. "What?" She shrugged, placing the bite in her mouth, "I told you it was my favorite." Beastboy felt his heart leap just a little, as it did on any of the rare occasions that Raven decided to show even a little emotion, then he continued munching on his cheesecake.

It had been an easy week in the crime department; not much has happened other than Old Miss Millbrooke's cat getting stuck in the tree, a few lowly criminals attempting break ins around the city, and maybe one or two appearances from Mad Mod that were quickly ended with a trip to the city prison. Honestly, the team had enjoyed the lack of mischief and have used this time to build as a team and as friends. It has been almost a year now since they had last faced off against one of their greatest enemies, Slade, and since finally defeating him, not many 'big name' criminals dared to come out of hiding and rise up. It was as if they had finally realized just how terrifyingly tough the Titans really were after taking out one of the most well-known names in the criminal world. All was going smoothly for the Titans. They hadn't ever caught the infamous thief known as Red X, but even he seemed to vanish long ago. All was looking well for the young heroes; Robin no longer had anything to obsess over (well, almost anything), the team was slowly introducing more earthly things to Starfire, and even Raven seemed to include herself more into the random shenanigans that her friends would come up with.

Unfortunately, that peace would only last so long. What the Titans didn't know was that Slade was in fact still alive and well and plotting his next move. And of course, Red X had never truly left. In fact, he was there watching from the lone ledge of the lighthouse not far from the tower, as the team laughed at their mini triumph in the kitchen. This was not the first night for him, on this lone ledge, for he had been keeping tabs on the Titans for a while now.

XXXXXX

I laid down on my side, lazily holding up my head with one of my hands and yesterday's newspaper spread out on the ground in front of me. I would casually look up after glazing over a page to make sure the Titans hadn't done anything "crazy" while I was reading. So far the only interesting thing in this boring city and its boring newspaper was that a "big time villain" from Gotham had been sighted in Jump a couple of times over the past month, leading the police department to believe he has either relocated or has some kind of connections here in the city. It was true, that he had connections here. Slade had mentioned the name, "Joker" to me a few times, but I don't think I was really listening because no facts about the man were coming to me at the moment. All I knew was he was a big deal and supposedly rather dangerous. I chuckled at the horribly stenciled black and white photo of an insane looking clown, surrounded by a few other crazed looking carnival workers. These guys were supposed to be dangerous? This news hadn't even made the front page; what made the front page, you may ask? Some old lady's goddamn cat getting stuck in a goddamn tree and being rescued by-you guessed it! The Teen Titans.

"This city, man." I rolled my eyes before crumpling up the papers and lazily tossing the bundle over my shoulder and turned my attention back to my targets. I laid like this and stared through the windows of the tower for what felt like hours until finally they all seemed to part ways and head for their rooms. The robot one; Cyborg, I believe, stayed behind to shut down everything in the main room then enabled the security system (as if that could keep me out.). I had to let out a chuckle at their feeble attempts at safety.

I was about to head back to my own humble abode until I heard the sound of rusty metal hinges being carefully turned. I stayed where I was, watching once more as the lone alien beauty attempted to quietly close the door to the roof then flew over to sit on the edge of the tower; her legs dangling over the edge. My eyes traced over her delicious features from those tanned legs leading up to her slender torso and of course those perfectly sculpted breasts. I silently whistled; if all aliens looked like her, the next thing I would be stealing is a spacesuit and some intergalactic condoms. "Damn." She always was fun eye candy whenever I played with the Titans, but I found myself craving more. There was something inside of me that was itching, aching for more than just a dessert for my eyes to enjoy. I needed a bite of that tasty little treat. She was like a forbidden fruit that no one else had ever had the pleasure of enjoying yet and I knew I wanted to be the first to take a nibble.

Then, naturally, the bird boy appeared and sat down beside her and therefore ending my fantasy. I growled. What did he think was going to happen? Nothing! I've watched their interactions for months now, and he was pathetic to say the least. He never even came close to sealing the deal; he was nothing like me. What did he think, she was going to wait forever for him to man up and finally claim her? Just from what I've seen of the girl, I knew that wouldn't be the case. After everything I've seen of these two, I've began to pick up on the subtle hints from Starfire that she too was craving more, far more than what her precious Robin seemed willing to give her; things that I could give her.

Watching how Boy Wonder stared at her, smiled at her, longed for her, it only made my need to have her all the more difficult to merely dismiss. Oh yes, this victory would be a fun one. A soft breeze rustled the long hair of my trophy and she wrapped her arms around herself to keep the cold at bay. But of course, Robin wrapped his filthy arm around her shoulders which elicited a gracious smile from the girl. Disgusting. To be fair, kudos, kid, this is the most action I've seen you get since I've started this endeavor. I scoffed, twirling one of my crimson X-shaped blades around my fingers: an anxious habit, really. "I'm bored." I stood up and stretched my arms above my head to relieve them of that obnoxious tingling sensation from laying in the same spot for so long. Then, a smile tugged at my lips from behind my mask, "Time for the game to begin."