swiftlark - Tumblr blog

[swiftlark]

i’m going absolutely insane because he’s not dylan thomas and im not patti smith and this is in fact not the chelsea hotel we are just two modern idiots

[swiftlark]

once again thinking abt how fucked it is that bruce took the name “robin” which was a nickname dick’s mom gave to him and just… gave it to jason????? like were there no other bird names?????

[swiftlark]

"he said since she was so wise beyond her years, everything had been above board. she wasn't sure" genuinely makes me nauseous

[swiftlark]

So Long, London & lyric parallels

part 1 | part 2

[swiftlark]

my boy really does break his favorite toys (me)

[swiftlark]

low key she was so happy her travy made it to the big game

[swiftlark]

Robstar Week Day 4: A Long Night and a New Day (Prompt: Trauma/Healing)

My original plan for this fic was to set it right after The End, with Robin and Starfire taking a moment to catch each other up on the ordeals they went through while they were separated and recover together after such a harrowing event. Then I rewatched Haunted for the upteenth time, and suddenly remembered the fic “Bonds” (from the Moments collection) that I had set the morning after that harrowing ordeal, and could not shake the thought of “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to show the conversation Raven interrupted between Starfire and Robin?” The general theme of the story is mostly the same, albeit with 100% more Robin guilting himself, but now we get to experiment with continuity!

And with that, I actually have finished with this year’s Robstar Week. It’s kind of a shame the last fic ended up being the heaviest one, so uuuuh let’s just call day 7 the “finale” or something (and don’t worry, everyone totally made it out of the mission in that one fine, everything’s fine)

A Long Night and a New Day

Starfire sat upright at the edge of her bed, fidgeting with her communicator and looking out the window at nothing in particular. She hadn’t slept very well the night before, but the same agitation that had kept her up then was racing too fast through her mind to let her concentrate on very much now.

And there was a lot of information, a lot of emotion, to run through. Concern, confusion, fear, dread, final blessed relief… but at the moment, her thoughts were dominated by one of the last things Cyborg had said before everyone had tried to turn in for the night.

“The reagent in Slade’s mask didn’t trigger itself. There was a signal. Somebody triggered it from outside the Tower.”

Keep reading

[swiftlark]

RobStar Week 2023, Day 5 - Movie Night

(Short and sweet and cute.)

---

Robin pinched his eyes down at the cover of the DVD and then let them flick up at his girlfriend.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "Last time we tried watching this series it was a bit, uh..."

Starfire tucked Wicked Scary 4 against her chest. "Harrowing, I know," she finished for him. "Because of Raven's powers going haywire. But Raven is not here right now and I have read the reviews and people are much agreed that this is the best one yet. Besides," she added, turning the case around and pointing to one of the back cover insert images, "this one has my favorite Earth actress and I am curious to see how she does outside of her usual body of lighthearted romantic comedy work."

Robin bit his lip, but couldn't really deny her logic. Still, he pulled out his T-communicator and double-checked the position of Raven's tracker.

"I have already forewarned her that we would be watching it," Starfire told him. "She has promised to stay downtown until given the all-clear."

Sheepishly, Robin stowed his comm again. "You should have led with that," he joked.

"Perhaps I should have," she agreed with a chuckle. "Should Raven be offended by your apparent skittishness?" she teased.

Robin shuddered. "Just not keen on having slimy cold mentally projected tentacles dragging me into a wall again," he said. In the immediate aftermath of the incident he had played calm, collected leader, but he couldn't deny the events had still kind of creeped him out. A little.

Grinning, Starfire held out the case to him.

"I shall begin making the popcorn if you will set the movie up," she offered.

He took it in his hands and passed on her left, as she headed for the kitchenette area and began opening cupboards.

***

Forty-five minutes in found them shoulder-to-shoulder, laying on their stomachs on the floor, popcorn bowl forgotten to the side as they stared, enraptured, by the flickering blue screen of the TV.

After a long moment of tension the speakers popped with a loud noise, in tandem with an intense jump scare that happened in the film.

Both teens shrieked and grabbed the edge of the blanket draping their backs, flinging it over their heads to hide.

After a moment, hearts pounding, their eyes met.

Tension broken, they laughed, adrenaline rush inside them turning happy rather than frightened.

"That was rather silly of us," Starfire commented.

"It was a good scare," Robin countered, peeking out through the gap to check and confirm that, yes, they were in another harrowing chase scene now. "My heart's still racing."

She nudged him in the shoulder. "Are you sure that is not due to the pleasant company you are keeping?" she asked with a cheeky wink.

He laughed shortly, blushing and ducking his eyes. "Company is nice," he mumbled. He reached over and set a hand on her waist, tugging her closer.

She happily snuggled into him, leaning her head against his ear.

They sat there in contentment for a moment, before Robin lifted the edge of the blanket, sneaking his hand for the popcorn bowl. "So what's the assessment so far? Does Darsha Williams deliver?" He was vaguely familiar with the actress from some of Starfire's other favorite movies; she usually played much whackier than the role she'd been cast in now.

Starfire hummed thoughtfully. "Her expressions are a little bit exaggerated," she decided, "but she does appear to have the range. I was not sure I would believe her performance but she is making for a very credible Final Girl."

Robin popped a few kernels into his mouth, both of them lingering under the cover of the blanket, choosing to talk for a moment instead of watch. "They've definitely cleaned up the camerawork," he said. "Shakeycam in the original was a bit hard to parse sometimes."

"And I believe the monster may have a new leitmotif."

He sidled a look at her. "Since when do you know about musical leitmotifs?" he teased.

It was her turn to look away bashfully. "I have been doing the binging of videos on YouTube." Her own hand darted out from under the blanket to capture a handful of popcorn. "Tamaranian musical composition has some things surprisingly in common with specific genres and styles of Earth music."

"Remind me to let you take me down that rabbit hole sometime." He drew up the blanket corner on his side, checking the movie. "Okay, I think the chase is over now, we good?"

She nodded. "We are good."

He stretched the blanket back over their heads to uncover them, sliding his hand comfortably into hers, entwining fingers. He pressed a kiss into her hair and then settled in again, their sides flush against each other's as they returned to their viewing.

[swiftlark]

“the smallest man who ever lived is about joe!” “no it’s about matty!” wrong it’s about my first boyfriend who i dated when i was 19.

[swiftlark]

happy 5th anniversary queen

[swiftlark]

Robstar Week Day 5: Self-Defense (Prompt: Bodyguard)

And now the time has come for this year’s Royal Family Verse prompt! For those of you unfamiliar with this ‘verse, the short answer is that I place one Robstar Week fic a year in a special continuity wherein an attempt on Galfore’s life ultimately leads to Starfire returning to Tamaran as its Grand Ruler and Robin officially joining her under the Tamaranean name Nightwing. For the more details, feel free to check out the other fics on the Royal Family Verse tag! For those of you who are keeping track, this one takes place somewhere between “Looking Back, Moving Forward” and “These Winding Halls.”

Self-Defense

“Hey, can I ask you a really dumb question?”

Starfire turned her attention from her meal to give her husband a questioning look. The week-long celebration for her coronation had finally wound down to a close, and she could tell that Nightwing was relieved to be a little further from the public eye. She suspected it helped that informal meals like this one were not undertaken with the same spirit of competition as proper feasts.

Even so, he looked a little ill at ease. He was toying aimlessly with his sputlinks (one of the few Tamaranean dishes she knew for sure suited the human palate, so that wasn’t the problem) and glanced once or twice at the stoic guards stationed at the door.

Keep reading

[swiftlark]

RobStar Week 2023, Day 7 - Safe

(Aaaaand done.)

---

Even though their rooms were next to each other and she was not a particularly heavy sleeper, waking to Raven knocking on her door in the middle of the night and directing her towards Robin's room was not an uncommon occurrence.

This time Raven was barely awake enough to mumble, "Nighmare." at her, blinking blearily and already swiveling around to go back to her own room and bed, knowing that Starfire would take care of the Boy Wonder's distress, so that both she and he could sleep.

Starfire sighed, closing her door and heading the opposite direction from the empath. She did not begrudge Raven her mind bond with Robin but at times she thought it would be more convenient not to have to go through a third party in order to comfort her own boyfriend.

Perhaps when they were older, she could convince him to begin sharing a room.

Starfire hit the button for Robin's door and stepped in over the threshold.

He wasn't moving, but she could still tell whatever unpleasant dream had hold of him was a very bad one; he was visibly grimacing even in his sleep, curled up tight, hunching into his shoulders and knees.

She approached carefully, and gently lay a hand on his shoulder.

At the warm contact he startled awake.

His eyes were wide with heartbreaking fear for a moment. But then they flickered with recognition as he saw her, soft shape silhouetted in the moonlight from his window, and he deflated with relief.

A faint apologetic smile crossed his lips. "Hey," he breathed. "Sorry."

"There is no need to apologize," Starfire told him, sitting down on the edge of the bed as he leaned up. "You know I am here for you."

He nodded, scooting closer, wrapping his arms around her and settling into her embrace. For several moments they just breathed together, existing in the silent comfort of the hug. His breath whistled through the strands of her hair and he was warm in her arms, as she pressed her palms softly to his back.

"Do you wish to talk about it, or do you wish for me to distract you?" she asked. She'd had much practice at gauging how to calm and comfort him.

"Um..." Robin considered for a couple seconds, then began to pull back. "Distract, I guess. I can't really remember it right now."

Starfire smiled. Sometimes she was lucky and was able to wake him in a fashion that his nightmares slipped right past his short term memory and were at once forgotten. She wound an arm around his waist, snuggling into his side. Reaching up she turned his chin towards her and kissed him, lips pressing warmly and firmly against his.

He blinked a bit dumbfounded when she pulled away. "What..." he asked, "...was that for?"

She giggled. "That was my distraction. Was it effective?"

From the disorganized look in his eyes she knew it had been. He shook himself, chuckling shortly. "You'd think I'd be used to kissing you by now," he said.

"Should we do it again?" she asked cheekily.

"I kind of wanted to just talk."

"Oh?" she said, surprised.

His smile was shy as he said, "I like hearing your voice. It's... soothing." He reached for her hand, clasping it. "How excited you get when you're talking about things always puts me at ease."

Heart warming, she smiled. "You are sweet," she told him. "I also feel relaxed in your company." She squeezed his hand, leaning into him. "I am running out of stories about Tamaran to tell you, however," she confessed.

"Heh. Okay, well... how about I talk this time?" he offered. "I know I haven't told you half the adventures I've had with Batman."

"Please," she said.

She pulled her feet up onto the bed and they leaned up against the pillows together, watching the moonlight creep across the wall. Robin talked and talked and she listened, comforted by the sound of his heartbeat and the feel of his skin against hers.

[swiftlark]

RobStar Week 2023, Day 4 - Missing

(Set during "How Long Is Forever" because apparently I like hurting myself.)

---

The gears near the ceiling rumbled as he stepped into the dimly lit room. Nightwing didn't blink, his eyes already adjusting.

He made a clinical sweep, glancing in each of the corners of the room to check for hidden threats. Satisfied for the moment that nothing had gotten past his security system, he made his way to the computer control on the far wall.

His boots echoed emptily in the hollow space, dull echoes bouncing off the surfaces. Aside from his footsteps and the occasional hiss of steam, it was oppressively quiet.

With a flick of a hand on the console the system booted rapidly to life, cool blue artificial light falling across his face. The camera feeds arrayed themselves on the topmost bank of screens, showing silent snow-covered angles of Jump City. His OS waited for his input, blinking green cursor in the DOS window that had auto-opened on the screen.

Nightwing reached for the keyboard. He happened to glance at the other icons on the desktop.

His hand stilled, hovering over the space bar.

He stared, confused, at the small red circle imposed over the shortcut for the messaging app.

The little dot stared back at him for a long moment as his mind blanked out, bewildered.

He had a message?

He never got messages.

Cyborg was the only one who still had his contact info and in all the years he'd been set up here he had never...

He was frozen for a portent minute. Warily, he moved the cursor to hover over the icon.

He hesitated for one second longer before he clicked it.

The message opened. It was from Cyborg, like he'd thought, and consisted of a single line:

You were right. She's back.

Nightwing gaped at the words, uncomprehending for a tense eternity. His eyes widened abruptly, the dawning realization of what Cyborg meant hitting him like a bowling ball.

Yanking out his desk chair, he sat down and flipped through camera feeds, flashes of the city blipping one by one in rapid succession as he searched.

Downtown business district, nothing. Central Park, nothing. The abandoned factory section, nothing.

Finally, he found an angle that showed a flying streak floating over the city. Breath hitching, he adjusted the programming of his surveillance system, directing it to track the anomaly.

The system filed through a few different cameras before one caught a close enough glimpse.

The air left his lungs like his breath had been punched out of him. His back hit the chair solidly as he sat, gaping, a vice of emotion squeezing around his throat.

Vibrant red hair. Orange skin. Purple garments accented with metal bracers.

His heart was sputtering, like it had forgotten how to beat. He could hear his pulse loud in his ears.

It couldn't be...

Starfire.

His head spun, sitting there dumbly, just watching her as the cameras tracked her across the city. With a rush, he hurled forward, typing out a reply to Cyborg.

When? was all he managed to get out, before his impatience made him smack the button to send.

The wait between the response seemed interminable.

A new message blipped.

She's looking for Warp. She's trying to set things right. She needs help.

Frantic fragmented disjointed thoughts collided in his head, but his body was moving automatically, sliding to another panel, scanning for chronol distortions. Within minutes he was on Warp's trail.

Long buried emotion threatened his composure, rising up like heat in his face, stinging his eyes. He clamped down on the surge, shoving it back under the lid he kept all his feelings under.

Focus, he told himself.

Cold professionalism dropped over him again, as he leapt from the seat and stalked back out. Though his body was charged up with adrenaline he kept it controlled, his face as expressionless as ever.

The biting chill of the outside air clawed at his face, scraped his lungs as he moved silently across rooftops. Nothing slowed him down. He didn't stop to think. If he stopped moving, he would start to double-guess, question himself. He had to keep going fast enough that the grief couldn't reach him.

At the same time, he pushed back against the warm spark starting to pop inside his chest, the faint flickerings of hope. He was just going to check this out, that was all. Investigate Cyborg's claim. He couldn't afford not to. He'd promised he would never stop looking.

He made it to the last location his scanner had pinged Warp's tech at. It was an open boulevard, and there were two figures there, unusual since these roads were usually empty and abandoned these days.

One wore gold-plated armor. Encased helmet, black slacks. Nightwing would know him anywhere. Warp. The other...

A sharp splinter of hot iron felt like it stabbed up through his stomach, piercing his heart and lungs. His limbs pumped faster; he leapt from the roof to the street below, his only goal to reach her before the blast charging in Warp's weapon did.

Robotically, he flung himself at Warp, anger burning under his sternum that the man would dare raise his hand against her again. The villain weighed practically nothing to the surge of strength flowing through him; as soon as he found his feet he was throwing Warp down an alleyway.

Warp hit the wall so hard it cracked, but Nightwing wasn't done, hurling a handful of explosive disks.

They popped off in the empty silence like thunderclaps, smoke and fire filling the alleyway. Nightwing punched through the smoke with a yell but the villain was already gone, slipped away like mist.

One long slow inhale and he calmed himself, the hot fury inside him siphoning away. Control. He wasn't fifteen anymore.

But he stood and turned around and she was. She was small and wide-eyed and so young; it was boggling to be looking down at her. She seemed so much tinier and thinner, standing timidly at the entrance to the alley, green eyes like wide plates, astonished, fearful, and a bit uncertain.

She was breathtaking, stepping from the shadows of the past unchanged like some kind of immortal fae... and he couldn't touch her.

A somber shroud darkened over him. She couldn't stay. She was trying to go back, of course she was trying to go back. She didn't belong here, in this bleak, hopeless future. The damage was done. His timeline would never go back to the way it was.

She couldn't stay.

He steeled himself firmly, posture somber, shuttering away his heart, and all the things he wanted to tell her.

I love you. I missed you. Please don't go away again.

Instead he said:

"It's good to see you again."

***

There was some part of him that felt lightened, free of some heavy weight, even though he knew she would only be here temporarily.

"Watch your step," he told her, leading the way down the stairs. "The third stair from the bottom is a little warped."

It squeaked under her foot as she put weight on it and she gawped, yelping a little, startled.

He turned his face so she wouldn't see him smile.

"We can track Warp through the chronol distortion he causes around him," he told her, pressing a button on his gauntlet and bringing up his personal HUD, which showed a little holographic map of the scans his supercomputer up in the main room were running on the city. "Temporal anomalies cause vibrations in the air molecules that the scanners can pick up."

Switching off the display he went for the weapons rack, loading his utility belt back up with all the basics. He'd left with a severely depleted supply when he'd gotten Cyborg's message, and he wanted to be prepared for anything in the upcoming fight.

"We hit him hard, but carefully. Chances are the tech in his suit is the only thing that can send you home. We don't want to damage it," he was rambling absently, loading up freeze discs and wingdings. "Hopefully the others will come help, but I think we can still take him if they don't."

"Robin?"

For some reason, this time, her voice froze him in place like ice, a lasso looping tight around his throat and squeezing, rendering him incapable of speech for a moment.

Nightwing's mind strained for control, his adam's apple bobbing harshly as he swallowed.

"Have... have I done something... wrong?" she asked.

His head whipped around, against his better judgement. "What?" he blurted. "No! No of course not, Star," he rushed to assure her, the rest of him turning around to face her. "Why would you think that?" he asked in dismay, cracks showing in his unflappable expression, unable to hide the distress that pinched his eyes.

She ducked her head, softly, some kind of awful sadness in her eyes. "It is just..." she began, then fiddled with her hands a long moment, wringing them. "You... you have not touched me once since we were reunited," she said, her voice so quiet he could barely hear it. "You have barely even looked at me."

Screams scraped against the sides of his head and it was all Nightwing could do to keep his expressionless mask in place.

Starfire clutched her hands tighter around the edge of the blanket, the only display of affection he had allowed himself to give her, shrinking in on herself like a wilting wildflower.

"I... I know that it is... different now," she strained out, "and you cannot reassure me in the way you might have when we were younger..." She was almost biting her lip, eyes watery and welling. "But I... you feel so distant and strange and I—I cannot help but feel like you don't want—"

He broke.

In an instant his arms were wrapped around her, and he was fifteen and terrified again, his face buried in her hair, embracing her with all his might and shuddering, silent sobs rattling up through him.

"You were gone," he whispered. "You were gone, Starfire. You disappeared." His throat was clogged, snot and inelegant emotion choking him. "I never stopped looking. I couldn't. But you were gone for so so long that I just—"

A strangled hiccup escaped him.

"—It—It hurt too much, I—"

Her hands pressed on either side of his face, pulling his head firmly back in front of hers, so she could look him directly in the face.

"I am sorry," she whispered tremulously, voice wavering. "I am sorry you had to go through that. I am sorry I was not there. I am here now," she told him.

Nightwing sniffed back his breath, senses tingling, struggling to regain his calm. "It's okay," he said, even though it wasn't, even though everything in him wanted to shatter. He forced himself to take a step back, distance himself from her warm touch.

He inhaled and exhaled, getting himself back under control. She watched him with concern, familiar and touching, her gaze like a soothing balm on his soul.

She can't stay, he reminded himself. He had to send her back. To her time, her Robin.

He wouldn't let himself go through this again.

A firm, burning determination shone in his eyes as locked eyes with her.

"Let's get you home," he said fiercely, conviction ringing out through every part of him as she ignited fire in his bones.

They would set this right.

[swiftlark]

CHLOE ET AL 😭😭😭😭😭😭

[swiftlark]

Robstar Week Day 2: A Time to Rest (Prompt: Tender)

Not too much to say about today’s piece; it’s a relatively straightforward one, I think. To be honest, I could probably use some of Starfire’s advice when it comes to my own tendency to be overly hard on myself.

A Time to Rest

Robin and Starfire were on their third movie of the night, and the other Titans had long gone to bed. Starfire had to admit that she was growing rather tired herself, but her boyfriend had been getting increasingly restless over the day and she didn’t want to leave him to start wandering about when he should be taking it easy.

Robin hadn’t been too seriously injured in the Cinderblock fight the other day, and Raven’s healing had long since dealt with the worst of it. But cracked ribs were tricky business at the best of times, and all the more so when the sufferer refused to entirely let go of his active lifestyle.

Keep reading

[swiftlark]

robstar week 2020: day five

sorry for the delay, but i hope you enjoy! please support @samdraws715 art as well! she gave me the whole idea for this story :’) (my prompts for this year are still inspired by her drawings!)

Rescue

Rain poured hard over Jump City. Unfortunately for the titans that night they were super busy with missions. It eventually got to a point where alerts came up in between battle, figuring that it would probably be best that they split up to tackle as many at once. Robin had decided that him and Starfire check out the alert while Raven, Cyborg and Beast Boy continue with their current mission.

Keep reading

[swiftlark]

RobStar Week 2020: Day 1

Tis RobStar Week, guysss! Ugh. Yas. That means content for the week of my two disgustingly adorable children. We love to see it. 

I do believe it runs from 5th July - 11th July so check the robstarweek tag each day for some robstar joy :3

So, I haven’t written anything really for a while. Especially not based in the TTA universe. But, I’m mildly happy with this one. In theory, it doesn’t actually have much of the kids but it has Robin talking bout his crush with Wally. 

Confession… I don’t love the prompt of destiny/fate/star-aligned… all of that. Idk why cos like in essence I believe it. My babies are destined for each other. Buuut, as a prompt, I just never am a fan. So, I tried my best, I swear! XD

This oneshot is set after ‘Titans Together’ but before the movie, ‘Trouble In Tokyo’.

Uh, I know Robin talks about when Starfire kissed him and I know that he doesn’t discover that she learns languages through lip contact until the movie but like… c’mon. Robin is a smart guy and would have thought about it in the time since they first met. I don’t think he would bring it up cos he awks but I think he would put two and two together. So, when it’s mentioned, he is just kinda speculating and then it’s confirmed in the movie. That’s how I’m viewing it anyway. XD

Hope you like it. Happy RobStar week! ^.^

________________________

Star-Aligned/Destiny

The upbeat music drifted and pounded around the whole tower, with the epicentre of the noise coming from the main room, which was fairly packed with Titans from all across the globe, enjoying their Friday night. 

It had been about a week since they’d taken down the Brotherhood of Evil and put all the criminals that had been affiliated back in their rightful places within penitentiaries across the world. The ordeal had been difficult on each and every one of the Titans and it had taken a lot of time and energy to ensure that the threat was dealt with and the Brotherhood were dismantled for good. 

So, when Beast Boy and Cyborg had approached him about having a party to relax and say thanks to the whole Titans Network for their help in defeating the long standing villains, Robin had been reluctant to say no. He felt that a little fun was well deserved and decided it wasn’t often that they all let loose and just got to act like normal young adults, even if it was only for one night.

He felt good as he sat at the counter, dressed in civvies for the first time in a long time, with a glass of cold soda tantalizing his lips. He knew that some of the boys had snuck in a bit of alcohol and since all of the Titans were technically 18 and over, they were legally allowed to drink in private locations, according to Jump City law. So, he was letting it slide, but that didn’t mean he was about to consume it himself. Robin was all for unwinding but… he still had his wits about him, just in case any alerts came through.

Of course, in the morning, there were a few individuals who he wanted a word with regarding how they purchased the alcohol but he resigned himself to waiting until tomorrow, rather than putting his leader head on right now.

Robin cocked a small smile as he scanned the room from behind the safety net of his mask. He may well have been in casual clothing but the mask always stayed put; an unkickable habit of his, he mused.

Keep reading