Forced Bonds

Chapter 3

Jump City
June 16, 08:19 PST

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The thick cuffs clip to each of his wrists and a white light shine from the seam, magically mending themselves together. Raven pushes past Jinx and runs to Robin, trying to get the metal to come off, but it sticks perfectly to his flesh. Raven examines the cuffs:

They are paper thin but don't seem to cut into his skin. Three inches long and a shiny silver, they remind Raven of Wonder Women's arm guards. Despite how thin they are, she can't break them off Robin—she can't even bend them!

"What do they do?" Raven hisses looking up at the weapons dealer.

"And now we wait," he laughs.

"What?!" Everyone screams. The villains and Raven all tense when he just snickers.

The sirens are outside now and the rest of the Titans rush inside. The dealer waves to them, giving a quick goodbye before vanishing with a poof. White smoke rolls out from where he was standing to dissipate around their feet. The recliner seems to have disappeared as well.

The remaining villains attempt to get away from the approaching heroes. The criminals do not get very far and are taken to Jump City's Police Station. Raven does not leave Robin's side as Starfire, Beastboy, Cyborg, and the police take the criminals into custody. The police, concerned about such a mass gathering of villains, ask for each of the hero's statements. Raven refuses:

"I'm taking Robin back to the tower," she says to the team, who are being crowded by the police and now arriving media. Cyborg, Beastboy, and Starfire nod at the sorceress, eyeing Robin fearfully.

When she arrives at Titan Tower, Robin is still unconscious. Raven sails him into their medical room, careful to not move his head or neck as the purple magic disk dissipates.

"Computer," Raven orders, "tell me how to treat him."

The computer scans his body and a female voice instructs her how to clean the wounds and dress them properly. Raven's face tightens as it reads off the list of injuries:

"Patient: Robin. Scanning, please wait... scan completed. Diagnosis: Four broken ribs, broken left humerus, broken right humerus, fractured left femur, right ankle sprain, major busing on body part(s): all, major shallow and deep cuts on body part(s): all, slight internal bleeding, other minor injuries," The voice monotones. Starfire rushes in after Raven finishes wrapping Robin's last bandage.

"Patient: Robin. Treatment complete."

Starfire clutches the bedside and Raven sighs, exhausted. The Tamaranean reaches out to touch the teen but retracts her hand as if she might hurt him. Robin's skin hardly showed through the casts or bandages, but his breathing seemed to come easier than before.

"What's this?" Starfire askes, pointing at the cuffs. Beastboy and Cyborg enter looking just as concerned for Robin as Starfire. It really hasn't been a good week for the poor guy.

"I'm not sure," Raven replies, thoroughly annoyed. She tried to remove the bracelets to no avail while treating him. She even tried to cut it off using a scalpel! "But whatever it is, it's not coming off."

Cyborg leans down and looks at the metal, scanning it with his robotic eye. "I'm not getting anything. Computer, do an analysis on the cuffs."

"Preparing analysis. Searching... Target: "cuffs" found. Please wait."

They watch Robin breath while they wait. Beastboy wrinkles his nose.

"Analysis complete. Information stored."

"I'm going to go meditate," Raven sighs. "I doubt Robin is going to be going anywhere anytime soon."

"Beastboy, will you help me take him to his room?" Starfire asks quietly as Raven leaves for the roof. "I think he'll feel more comfortable there."

Beastboy nods, transforms into a tiger, and waits for Starfire to move Robin onto his back. He feels the weight of his leader, noticing how light Robin is. Beastboy also notices his smell again. It's a musty, human type smell, but it doesn't smell bad—in fact Beastboy quite liked it. The smell pleases the beast, he purrs.

They walk slowly to ensure they don't hurt him. Robin's face is pained but they made it to his room not long after. Starfire lays him gingerly on his bed, pulling the covers over the teen before looking at him sadly.

Starfire leans in to kiss him—

"What are you doing?" Beastboy asks her. Starfire freezes, startled.

She blushes hot red.

"I'm so sorry, I don't know what got into me!" She apologizes to him and backs away from Robin, fidgeting with her hands. "Robin's a friend, in fact he's like—"

"Whoa, Star, stop," Beastboy calms. He changes back into his green human form and takes her hand. "I know. We all know. You don't need to hide it. I just didn't know you guys had confessed to each other."

Starfire nods, too embarrassed to tell him that they were not actually together. "Please don't tell the team."

Beastboy winks before skipping out of the room.

Starfire walks back over to Robin and watches him for a bit. She stares at the slow rise and fall of his chest. Her face heats again as she thinks back to the almost-kiss. Was she in love with Robin? She had never felt the urge to touch him so strongly. Starfire tentatively peels back the covers to look at his wounded chest. She scanned his body, the curve of lean muscles seen through the bandages. Starfire traces his collar bone and slides her hand down.

Robin moans in his unconsciousness, causing Starfire to bite her lip.

What was she doing? What was this urgent feeling in her chest? It's like every time she breathes, she feels more attracted to him. More attracted to Robin. Was this really what they called love? Why now? Why so much?

She backs away from him, trying to gain herself back. She can't. She mustn't. She hasn't even confessed to him yet. It would be awful. Not to mention the fragile state he is in now: both physically and emotionally. She takes in a deep breath and tries to move towards the door, but she stops.

She's breathing hard. When did that happen?

What is happening to me, how is this even possible? Starfire asks herself and then drops to the floor- hungry.

She crawls over to Robin and climbs on top of him. She kneels over his body and leans down to kiss him.

"What are you doing?" A voice asks her.

She stops and look down at the voice—Robin's voice.

He's staring up at her, confused. Eyes shiny and lidded from sleep.

Then, total fear crests his face. He whips his head frantically to the side and tries to move his body to no avail. His leg and both arms are bound with hard casts that lie straight and his remaining leg was pinned down by Starfire. He was trapped- again.

He tries to speak, but his voice catches in his throat.

Starfire doesn't seem to pick up the fact he is trembling underneath her as she is overcome with these- emotions. She takes his chin in her hand and turns it back towards her, thumb pressing tightly against his bottom lip. She opens his jaw to expose his mouth.

She smiles at him lewdly.

"What a good boy," she compliments quietly into his ear.

Robin whimpers under her touch, tears threatening his eyes. Whatever is happening- whatever is making Star do this to him, he wants it to stop. At one point would've wanted this, needed it, even- but not like this. Robin tries to plead at her with his eyes, but it doesn't work. Her eyes are glazed over with something like instinct.

Fear racks his heart.

Robin closes his eyes tightly as Starfire leans down to kiss his vulnerable mouth.