TEACHING STAR TO READ

VigilanteCharlie317

Chapter 12:

She bolted from her room. Nothing could hold Starfire to the ground as she raced down the empty halls, she was so overjoyed. Of course she loved him; she had loved him all along. And now, Starfire only had to find him to tell him that she read the letter, she read it, and she felt the same for every word he painstakingly wrote for her to know. She felt it in her heart every time she saw him, and every time she heard his voice. Now all she needed was to find him.

The boy in question had just left his study. The days felt as though they had been blurring together, flying forward in an inaccurate span of immeasurable time without Starfire's nearby attendance. He rarely saw her during the day that week, or the week before that in fact… and he found himself missing her. Robin wondered with a fear tightening his chest if she had figured out the letter yet. Was that why she hadn't answered him a few nights before? His covet to seek her out again deprived and sobered him. Even if it meant he had to face her about the letter so soon, he felt he was nearly desperate enough to go through with it at this point.

He turned the corner to head back towards his room, only to come into full collision with Starfire.

She pressed against him, completely up against the wall behind, the unsuspected contact triggered his posture to stiffen and his heart to leap up against his rib cage in a startled ignition. He couldn't miss the beaming smile that danced across her face. Starfire's eyes flickered up to him as he still stared back at her in confusion. He still didn't understand, and she noted this with a quiet laugh to herself. Ever so slowly she crept up to him. Is this really happening? they both thought as he found his hands furling around her while she came closer, still.

He drew her in and all at once their lips gently met. Her hands flew up around his head and she pressed warmly into him. His hormones were singing as he enclosed her, and they grew even more blissfully intimate.

She knew it was what he wanted; it was what he had wanted silently each time that his eyes beheld her for ages, and even more so as the recent days had passed. He just couldn't believe it was happening, so sudden and unprepared for. But for Robin, the message was evidently received.

They managed to pull apart for a lasting moment, trying to catch and reclaim their breaths in small fluttering gasps.

"So," Robin murmured softly, amused, still holding her close, "I'm guessing you got my letter?"

"I suppose you could assume that, yes." she replied lightheartedly, between the little kisses she gave him with a wanting impatience before they came together again.

He allowed his eyes to close beneath the mask as his lips met hers now with tender force, engulfing her as she couldn't help but omit a gentle moan. His hands crept about her body; moving up to encircle her shoulders, then rose to weave through her red hair and cup her pinkened cheeks in his palms, while her arms still clasped tightly around his neck. Robin never felt so light, so at peace in his mind and his heart. This was the feeling he'd agitatedly searched for, while Starfire was ready to give it to him for so long.

Abruptly his head hit something hard. Robin's eyes flew open as he yelped to find they all of a sudden had met the ceiling. By Starfire's talent and unrestrained delight they had begun to float and he hadn't even noticed, what with being occupied with current events.

"Are you injured?" her eyes flew open at him as she heard his groan and held him tighter, her head touched to the ceiling as well. .

"No…" he trailed off embarrassed, "just surprised me, I guess."

Their heads pressed to the ceiling like forgotten balloons as they lingered a decent eight feet above the hallway floor. As they lingered a decent eight feet above the hallway floor, their lips met once more as Robin waited to see if the dream would end. But as she pressed so close to him, her body wrapped and entwined with his above the floor, it couldn't feel more real. Still, it was beginning to make his head hurt to push against the surface, and he felt as though he was slipping from her grip, despite she was so much stronger.

Robin had whispered something in her ear, when they heard a thudding from the stairwell across the hall. Of course this would have to happen, Robin thought as panic gripped his throat.

"Star, I think someone's coming," he said, and she gasped, accidentally letting go of Robin and letting him drop to the ground.

"Ow.." he mumbled and quickly got to his feet.

"I am sorry!" she cried and went bright red. She hadn't meant to drop him, but as the footsteps up the stairs grew louder, she couldn't help but worry someone would see them.

"We've gotta get you down," he said, and tried to reach for her boots, but she was too high up, stuck out of his reach. "Do you think you could try to get down yourself?"

"I am not sure," Starfire replied nervously. For some reason the joy the manifested into her powers just… wouldn't wear off.

"Try to push yourself down," Robin said, exasperated, "I'll grab you."

Angling her arms to press against the ceiling, she shoved herself down and Robin caught her by the foot, managing to yank the rest of Starfire down without too much of a struggle, though she still hovered as she clasped his hand. Robin led her down the hall where they ducked into the nearest door, which was the study where Robin had just emerged prior. Just as the door slammed, Beast Boy turned the corner into the mouth of the hallway at the other end, dragging his feet into his room, unaware of who else was on the same floor and what they had been doing.

As soon as Robin let go, she was up and out of reach again. She giggled a bit and offered a muffled apology as her hands covered her blushing face.

"I do not know why I cannot control this," she thought aloud.

"Don't worry," Robin laughed, "it's actually… kinda cute."

"But I am immovable! Out of reach!" she exclaimed, waving her arms to justify.

"Well that's ironic for the both of us, I suppose." he mused, climbing up on the desk to reach for her and pull her back down into his arms.

"Hello again." he said low and playfully as their lips came together once more.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

"Robin! I gotta use the printer!" Beast Boy's voice whined through the door.

"You've got to be flipping-" Robin slapped a hand to his forehead.

"Robin it is fine, I will see you again." Starfire promised, bestowing a quick kiss on his cheek before she flew out the window.

Robin threw open the door to the changeling, and Beast Boy couldn't help but wonder why Robin was grumbling so much as he stalked out of the room.

Ugh, I can't just get a break, can I? Robin groaned, wandering into his room. He could never have a private moment without someone else in the Tower (particularly Beast Boy) milling around and getting into his business. This tower is almost a dozen stories high, can't he stay on some other floor? Robin fell face first on his bed, and let the white duvet puff up and swallow him. He kissed Starfire. No, he did more than that, he made out with her. It may have been a private moment cut short, but what a private moment it was. His head was spinning still, and his lips felt like they were sparks of untamed fire after doing what he had with them.

An hour passed, then two, then nearly four as he lay there replaying the moment in his head to justify to himself it had not been a dream. Everything that happened had actually happened; it was all real, and the very idea that she read his letter, and said she felt the very same couldn't help but make him fidget as he longed to see her again, to kiss her again.

He rolled over and got up, deciding he needed to get some air. Shutting the door behind, he crossed the hall and took the stairwell up to the roof of the tower. The afternoon was already growing late and darkening, what with the summer ending. Robin took a deep inhale; he was so high up it wasn't exactly warm, but the air still hung just as thick as it would in sweltering temperatures below. He turned and to his surprise Starfire was sitting across the way, her legs swinging over the edge of the roof as she looked out over the open water.

Without words he ambled over and sat down beside her, though she made no move to acknowledge his presence and continued to stare out at the water, as if entranced by the lapping waves that rolled and crashed along the pulling tides.

"Hey everything okay?" he asked, moving closer.

"Yes…" she trailed off and then picked up, "I just cannot believe-"

"Me neither," he smiled faintly, and then met his face with hers saying in an unsteady voice, "do you… wanna talk about it?"

She paused, and replied, "I suppose we should."

"Well…" he had no words. What was there to talk about on the matter? he didn't know, nor did he have the slightest idea where to start, or how to get the words out. It was incredible and I want to do it again, maybe even do more. I want to hold you and be with you and-

"Robin, does this mean that we would be… together? In a relationship that entails... more than the confines of a friendship?" she asked, her eyes were round marbles of curiosity and unease.

"If you want that, then yeah of course," he answered, fumbling for her hand until he found it and took it into his.

She did want it. She wanted it more than anything, and now the opportunity hung before her as her hand lay in his. But something troubled her. She thought of what had cut the tension and brought them to where they sat now, after embracing in such an intimacy just hours ago. She thought of his letter and the truths that came tumbling out as she unfolded the paper.

"Robin, you have told me secrets of yours, and now I only believe it is fair that I tell you mine." she said and turned from the ocean in front of her to face him, holding his hand just a bit tighter.

"Anything, Starfire. Whatever you think I've got to know." he promised.

"Well, you do remember when I came to Earth, yes?"

"How could I forget?" He laughed lightly, remembering that night so long ago when she crash-landed onto Earth, and he had the bright idea to get her out of those restraints on her arms that were probably six times heavier than he was. Before he could collect what was happening, she yanked him from the back of his neck into a forcible kiss… before shoving him to the ground with a death threat and taking off.

"When I came to Earth, when I… kissed you, the purpose behind my actions was to absorb your language." she said shyly.

"Oh," he said, caught slightly off guard, "well I guess that'd make sense. Instant adaptation… that's amazing." He knew of her other abilities undoubtedly well, but absorption and assimilation of language through physical contact was a pretty extraordinary talent to add to the list.

"Yes… but you see, I lied to you about it before." she said weakly,

"What?"

"Previously I had told you that Tamaranian abilities, being absorption of language, only compensates for the auditory linguistics of the language. But that is not the case." she hugged herself close to her body, and returned her gaze to the water.

"Star,"

"The truth of the matter is, when I went to collect your language from you, I did not wait for as much time as the process requires to subsume the entirety of your language." Starfire looked back at him, searching his face for a response, as he tried to process.

"That actually makes sense." he said in reflection, "You only got the bare necessities from me so you could get the message across that you needed to hide from the Gordanians."

"Yes," she breathed in relief, "I had to make haste, I only took what I required to be able to speak to you, but not enough to be literate."

This he could remember clearly; her lips had definitely only been on his for maybe a second or three before he was knocked on the ground and she was speaking English.

"Wait," he puzzled, "but we were just kissing hours ago, wouldn't that mean-"

"No." she answered with a slightly sad smile, "Though I am able to take in a language, it can only be done once with a single species upon that first encounter. The process itself is complicated to explain. Upon contact I can acquire as much as I can concerning that language as possible, but only on that one occasion only with that species. Nothing more."

Robin was quiet for a moment, then remarked, "All that time before you told me, you couldn't read a thing that the rest of us could. Star, that must have been impossible."

She leaned into him and murmured, "Even the alternative was possible, I still would have preferred you teaching me."

"I suppose we wouldn't be here right now if I didn't huh." he replied and hugged her tight.

"Starfire, I think… I think I love you." he found himself saying aloud.

"Robin," she kissed him deeply again, as he held her so close against him.

Though at one point she opened her eyes, and slowly brought her fingers up to his face and found herself gently pawing at the mask. Robin could help but wince and recoil slightly as if she was touching a delicate wound, and took her hands away from it and into his.

"I can't, I'm just not… I can't do it." he said with pain and regret that he couldn't hide. "Not yet."

"I am sorry." she said, but couldn't help but feel a tiny prick of disappointment.

"It's fine." he promised her as he found her lips again, "I'm just happy we finally have this."

"Robin I love you."

.

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A/N: There you have it!

Guys I am so sorry this is so late. It took forever to write because I wanted it to be adequate and I also lost all of my notes for the entire story. All of the plot notes, all of the dialogues, everything. This was basically constructed from memory because everything is gone. I hope you all liked it, though I know I suck at writing endings.

The story itself is based on a theory I put together months ago about Star's ability to instantly learn languages. I was watching Trouble in Tokyo one afternoon, and I noticed that when she went to kiss the random by-passer to learn Japanese, I thought, Wow, she's really taking her time! I know it was kind of for a humorous effect, but I couldn't help but wonder. From there, I pulled up the episode 'Go!' from.. I dunno, season 4 or 5, and watched the part where she kisses Robin. Then I timed it, along with the clip from Trouble in Tokyo. I can't quite remember the exact numbers, but the 'Tokyo' kiss was a decent 11 seconds, while the Go!' kiss was roughly 3 seconds. You now have ample permission to call me an obsessive compulsive freak. Anyway, from there I also noticed that she could read Japanese and such, and formed my theory that with lip contact, the longer it lasts, the more complete the absorption is. Wouldn't that sort of make sense though!? Since it seemed she wouldn't exactly bother learning every little detail of English when she was on the run after crash landing on Earth in 'Go!'? Couldn't we agree that it could explain her formal dialect and minor speech impediments? From there, I got the story idea for this fic that she couldn't read the English language and Robin had to teach her. Frankly, for my first fic ever, I didn't expect it to end up being nearly 30,000 words and 12 chapters long. I will tell you guys I have a couple short fics and oneshots underway, and hopefully those will actually be updated and written in a more timely manner than this monstrosity.

Thank you everyone who has read this, and has waited patiently for this final chapter. I am extremely grateful I've gotten so much positive input about it, and your kind reviews are what drive me to keep writing.

*PLEASE RATE&REVIEW THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING YOUR THOUGHTS AND WAITING FOR THIS CHAPTER :D