This revived Raven’s obsession, for she had a special sensitivity to the emotions of other people as well and she could sense that Starfire’s secret behavior had something to do with sexuality. I do not speak the slang and often say the wrong things when I try, and many behaviors which are normal on my home planet are considered strange here,” Starfire explained with her eyes on her boots, wiggling waves into the leather with her toes as she spoke. “Come on, what’s wrong for real? You were looking forward to tonight all week.” She did however join Starfire on the couch to further comfort her. Raven then remembered that she did find Starfire rather annoying most of the time, as she did everyone else, and decided against it to avoid encouraging her too much. Raven considered assuring Starfire that she hadn’t been a disturbance. Beast Boy told me to not disturb you, but I did not listen,” Starfire said, unable to hide her melancholy. Starfire continued to stare at the floor. “I’m sorry I shut the door on you earlier.” Anyway…” Raven paused to grit her teeth at what she was about to do next, for it was something she almost never did. “Why did you not join them?” Starfire asked. Raven rubbed the back of her head as she struggled to craft an apology, and by now they were both blushing. “Well, Robin, well not Robin, but I thought it best well actually Robin thought it best that I stay in case of emergencies, not that you would need my help,” she fumbled. Starfire looked up in surprise and immediately masked her dejection. Finding herself too distracted to do this, she sighed again and went out to the living room where she found Starfire, luckily still in her boots, seated crisscross on the couch and staring at the floor. She sighed and tried to suppress her empathy. Raven thought then about what Starfire was probably trying to say before the door was shut. It occurred to Raven that the guys, having learned that her answer would always be no, hadn’t asked her to go clubbing for two years, and wouldn’t have bothered sending Starfire to ask again. Thirty frustrating minutes passed until a new notion emerged to distract her. For two weeks she had gone on in this way, diverted ten times by the toes, one time by a heel, ten more times by the balls of the soles, and so on until it started all over again. Then she would make it to “Azar,” only for five thoughts about five of Starfire’s finger-like toes to dock at her tongue and force her to restart once more. “Az-” she would start, but then a thought of Starfire’s big toe would plug her mouth and force her to start again. The technique required total concentration though, and Raven, having caught peeks of Starfire’s feet, had not been able to get through the word ‘azarath’ with her immersion unbroken by all of those lustful thoughts that had so ceaselessly coiled between and around the syllables of her mantra that she could not utter it once without having ten fantasies. She hovered in the lotus position and began again chanting, ‘azarath, metrion, zinthos,’ an incantation she used to control her emotions which, due to her demonic lineage, could quickly grow into fiery passions and mood swings if left unchecked. Raven went back to her bed where, for the last two weeks, she had been struggling to meditate. Raven shut the door on Starfire’s perplexed face. “I don’t go to clubs, ever, and I need to get back to meditating.” Raven, desiring to send her away as soon as possible, made no effort to correct Starfire’s wording. “Greetings Raven! The others have requested your accompaniment at the ‘club’ to participate in the hanging of friends and mangling of young people. The door slid only a little and revealed half of Raven’s disinterested face. In the interest of not being the only girl in her immediate circle, she had gone to knock on Raven’s door. Starfire had begun her career as a Titan only two weeks ago and, though she was nervous, she was eager to hang out with her new friends and mingle with the young people of Earth. It was the onset of the weekend’s first night and the Teen Titans, most of them, were preparing to go dancing.

Starfire feet