A/N- Well! I'm back… again! Just thought I'd to a summer-themed fic since the summer holidays have started (well, they had just started when I started writing this… heh)

Summer Romance: A Day at the Beach

By The Silver Phoenix

Summary: It's a scorching hot summer, and the Titans have decided to spend a day at Jump City beach to cool off... and Robin and Starfire finally realise how much they care for one another.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans.

This fanfic is dedicated to all the wonderful people who reviewed my stories—fans and critics alike! Thanks so much for all the support!

It was a stifling summer day. The air was dry, dusty and hot; waves of heat shimmered in the air, and the unrelenting summer sun blazed brightly. The temperature was nearing 37 degrees Celsius, and the entire city seemed like the inside of an oven. Jump City's beaches offered a cool respite for the city's residents and even the Teen Titans themselves were enjoying a day off at the beach.

The azure-blue Pacific Ocean stretched into the distance, until it seemed to melt into the sky at the horizon line. All the shades of blue flowed together—a strip of sapphire here, a band of navy blue there, a thin line of cobalt, a piece of aquamarine. The sea was calm today, the surface smooth like a mirror, and the waves that broke the surface in the distance and slowly rippled shoreward were visible only to the most observant viewer. Turquoise waters lapped gently onto the beach in a ceaseless, steady rhythm, their movements perfectly synchronised—the rising and falling of the tide was the pulse of the waters, the very heartbeat of the ocean. Sunlight danced on the water, sparkling like millions of diamonds and gemstones, and rainbows chased each other beneath the surface, always just out of reach.

Deckchairs lined the kilometre-long stretch of fine white sand. Children built sandcastles, adults sunbathed and holidaymakers played beach volleyball or swam in the ocean. Raven sat in the shade of a giant umbrella and read a book, whilst Cyborg windsurfed. Starfire watched Robin and Beast Boy racing: human chasing fish, two figures cutting swiftly, lithely, through the waves, matching each other for speed. Even now, at the beach, Robin still did not remove his mask. Starfire spared a moment to speculate upon whether or not the mask was actually glued to the Boy Wonder's face, after all.

When Robin and Beast Boy grew tired of theirgame, they returned to the shore, where Robin was greeted by an over-enthusiastic Starfire."Robin?" she enquired, putting on a pleading face. "Will you teach me to swim?"

The Boy Wonder blinked blankly, then remembered that he'd promised to teach his best friend 'to do the swimming'earlier that day. He nodded.

Indeed, the Boy Wonder had been lost in his own thoughts, trying to muster the courage to actually confess to Starfire his feelings for her. He had finally confronted his emotions last week, and had reached the conclusion that he loved her. Falling in love with your best friend can be really awkward, Robin thought miserably, as they trudged down to the shore.The fact that she was the most beautiful girl Robin had ever seen didn't make his task of confessing his feelings any easier. (After all, boys will be boys.)

The two teens reached the edge of the water, and splashed two or three metres out, enough so that when they stood on the sandy seabed, their bodies were about two-thirds submerged. Following her best friend's instructions, Starfire leaned back and floated in the water, face up, with Robin's strong arms on her back and around her waist, keeping her afloat. Slowly, step by step, Robin began instructing the Tamaranian girl in swimming.

Flashback

"Robin you are certain that I will not drown when doing the swimming?" Starfire repeated for the umpteenth time. It was the Tamaranian's first time swimming in the ocean, although she had visited the beach on numerous occasions. Needless to say, she was… panicking. Her fear of drowning, once the concept had been introduced to her, was second only to her fear of being alone.

Robin laughed. "Yes, I'm certain. Come on, Star, you're going to love it. Swimming in the ocean is like…" he searched for an appropriate scenario and settled for the closest, "… like flying, in the sky. My parents first taught me how to swim when we went to the beach—" Robin's voice faltered a little as he mentioned his parents, but he continued firmly: "—and there's no experience quite like it. You'll enjoy it, I know you will. Starfire, can you pass me that bird-a-rang please?"

She handed the object to him, still saying dubiously, "But I have not swum before… it is possible that I shall drown!"

"Star, it's going to be fine," Robin reassured the Tamaranian girl, yet again. "I'll teach you to swim. And I won't let you drown. Promise"

"If you say so," she agreed, though still doubtful. Starfire left the room, and went to persuade Raven to go shopping with her for a swimming costume.

End flashback

Smiling, Starfire remembered her initial doubts regarding swimming when Beast Boy had abruptly suggested the trip, only that morning. Now, as she recalled the memory, Starfire giggled at her stubbornness and ignorance. Learning to swim was even easier than she had imagined—but only because Robin made it easy. He made everything seem easy, and enjoyable. With Robin's strong arms wrapped around her, holding her tightly, Starfire knew she would not drown. Far from it, in fact. As the afternoon progressed, she managed to learn breaststroke, backstroke and freestyle, all with Robin's help. Even her fear of drowning abated, though not entirely.

Now, bathed in the late afternoon sunlight, Starfire floated with her face just clear of the water, closing her eyes and sculling, using her hands as oars. The Tamaranian girl found this quite relaxing… she was drifting with the current, although she did open her eyes every few minutes to check that she had not been carried out to sea. Starfire opened her eyes again now, satisfied that she was still in the beach area, where the current was gentle. Then she frantically sat up, swallowing a mouthful of seawater in the process, as she realised that Robin was missing.

"Robin?" Starfire enquired, looking around her, frantically searching for a trace of her friend. He was nowhere to be seen. She splashed through the water, wading deeper and deeper, until her head was barely out of the water even when she stood up on tiptoe.

Then, suddenly, someone—or something—grabbed her arm and dragged her down. Caught unawares, Starfire gasped, only to swallow another whole mouthful of seawater. She lost her footing and slipped, falling beneath the waves. In a wild tangle of arms and legs, she managed to emerge from the water, gulping in deep breaths of air to soothe her deprived lungs. Robin surfaced just beside her, water dripping from his drenched hair. He was perfectly fine—and he was grinning broadly, as if deeply amused.

Starfire spluttered out a mouthful of seawater and made a face, wrinkling her nose. "I thought you had disappeared, or—or that you had been devoured by a carnivorous sea-creature!" she cried indignantly, wringing out her hair.

Robin grimaced a little. "Sorry… I guess I gave you a bit of a shock. Are—are you OK?" Robin paddled over to her side, now in genuine concern.

"Do I look 'the OK' to you?" Starfire glared back at him, something the Tamaranian princess never did unless she was really angry. Robin shrunk back, biting his lip, smile instantly fading away. He rarely saw her this angry; the closest she had been to this level of fury was when they were fighting bad guys… or when Beast Boy had accidentally stepped on Silkie…

"I'm sorry. My bad. I won't do it again," he declared, but Starfire turned her back to him and waded back to the shore. Robin splashed after her, but by the time he stepped back on dry land, wet hair and swimming trunks dripping, the red-haired girl was nowhere to be seen. Feeling dejected, he wandered over to the Titans' spot on the beach.

"She seemed really mad, if you ask me," Raven said monotonously, without looking up from her book.

"Gee, thanks Raven, for stating the obvious," Robin said sarcastically, drying himself with a towel.

Raven's violet eyes peered at her team-mate over the top of the Book of Azar. The Azarathian's eyes bore into Robin's mask, and he flinched uncomfortably. Raven's words held no more sympathy than her gaze. "You made her mad so get a grip on yourself and go apologise to her. I don't have to read her mind to know she obviously cares about you more than you think and you've done something stupid again and upset her. Spare me the details and just go say sorry."

Robin threw the towel on a deckchair and put on a T-shirt and board shorts. "Is it really that obvious?" he grimaced.

Raven did not answer, but supplied instead, "She's back at the Tower. She's either locked herself in her room and is currently crying her heart out, or is up on the roof, ready to go back to Tamaran for the weekend. If you're lucky, she's just finished packing, so you'd better hurry."

The Boy Wonder froze, and he felt as if a knife had just sliced through his heart. "She's doing WHAT? But I only—"

This time, Raven ignored him.

As the sun slowly inched beneath the Western horizon, the Pacific Ocean turned orange-gold under the late-afternoon sunlight, and sparkled like a million jewels. The sky, too, was ablaze with colours, washed with every shade of cerise, scarlet, gold, bronze and violet.

Starfire strolled slowly along the beach, a single figure, silhouetted against the blazing sunset. She had thrown on a short, lavender-dyed sarong over her bikini swimsuit, and her long auburn hair fluttered behind her like a banner in the breeze. The sand was soft and cool beneath her bare feet; the fine grains trickled like liquid between her toes as she walked. When Starfire reached the spot the Titans had occupied on the beach earlier that afternoon, she stopped. The air was quiet and still now—no echoes of children's laughter, no music blaring from radios or iPods… only the steady, gentle waves lapping the shore, the waters slowly rising with the tide. The beach was empty.

Starfire knelt on the beach, and with one slender finger, traced out some words in the sand: Starfire & Robin 4ever, then enclosed the words within a heart. Tamaranians, like humans, have emotions, and Starfire was not blind. She knew love when she experienced it. True, she had known of these feelings for quite some time now—a few months, perhaps—but only today had she fully realised just how much she cared for Robin, and how much she depended on him. It is ironic, she thought bitterly, that only through the experience of near loss did she finally come to terms with her feelings.

The Tamaranian stepped back, watching as the seawater flowed over the sand, washing the words away, the sea reclaiming the sand as its own territory. The waves retreated to reveal only a smooth white expanse of sand where there had been writing only seconds before. She sighed quietly. "Perhaps we were simply never meant to be, Robin," she whispered to the still, evening air.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that, Princess," a gentle voice said softly from somewhere behind her. Startled, Starfire turned around to find Robin standing just a few feet behind her. She had been too absorbed in her own thoughts and had not heard him approaching. Robin moved closer to her, and she saw that he was wearing a white shirt with the front left open and the buttons undone, and black board shorts. The wind whipped up his ebony hair, blowing it into his eyes. Starfire looked up, and saw that he had at last removed his mask. Her breath caught in her throat as she gazed up into Robin's beautiful yet mysterious, electric-blue eyes.

"Robin…" Starfire began, hesitatingly. "I apologise for my unacceptable behaviour this afternoon." She bowed her head. "It was my fault; I am sorry that I did not see the humour of the joke. I realise now that there is much to learn about Earth and its people, and I have been extremely ignorant. We are very different, and—"

"Star—" Robin stepped in front of the Tamaranian princess and placed his hand beneath her chin and tilted her head up. He touched a finger to her lips, silencing her. "I'm the one who should be apologising. You have nothing to be sorry about; I acted like a real moron this afternoon. I'm sorry if I alarmed you or anything; I meant it as a joke but I guess I took it too far. Will you accept my apology?" he took both her hands in his, and stared earnestly into her emerald eyes. Starfire nodded. "Oh—and one more thing," the Boy Wonder added. "You don't have to be so formal. We're best friends, remember? Now, what was that you wrote in the sand just before I came?"

Starfire's heart soared, fluttered, then plummeted. "I did not mean it," she said hastily. "It was merely—" A joke, she said in her mind. …Or was it?

"No, it wasn't," Robin said quietly. I don't have to be Raven to know that. "It's OK, Starfire. It's really nothing to be ashamed of, because…" and now at last came the confession that he had been holding inside for weeks, months: "because I feel the same way too. Starfire… I love you." He stood, smiling awkwardly, awaiting her response.

Starfire blinked. Of all the things she had been expecting from him, this certainly was not one of them. "Robin… I…" Could this really be happening? Starfire wondered. He had covered up the truth before, but surely he would not be lying with such a serious subject matter as this…?

"Oh, X'hal! I—I love you too, Robin. I-I do not know w-what to say…" the usually eloquent Starfire stumbled over her words in embarrassment. I cannot believe that this is truly happening…

Robin smiled understandingly, cupping his bare hand around her cheek. He looked deeply into her eyes, and saw the affection written plainly in her eyes—a deep affection that he was about to return, an aching longing that he was about to fulfil, and he knew in his heart that they were meant to be, after all. He knew what to do. He had been waiting for this moment for an eternity, and it had finally come. "It's OK, Star. You don't have to say anything." And then he kissed her.

Fin.

A/N- Please review! Tell me what you liked and/or disliked about it; areas for improvement, suggestions… etc, etc. Constructive criticism is welcome, as usual, but no flaming, please! If you really enjoyed this fanfic, I might consider writing a mini-series, with one fic dedicated to each season. Please tell me if you think I should go ahead with this idea.

Also, I'd really appreciate it if you just took a moment to answer the following questions (just write the answers in your review) to help me write what you would like to read in the future:

1. Do you prefer reading chapter stories or one-shots (like this one)

2. In chapter stories, do you prefer long chapters (2000+ words) or short chapters (less than 2000 words)

3. I am currently planning to start on a Teen Titans chapter story; which Titan(s) would you like the story to be centred around (maximum 2 characters), and which genre(s) would you prefer (adventure, horror, mystery, comedy, romance, etc.)

Thanks in advance!

- The Silver Phoenix