Internalized

"...I'm telling you, BB, she's a lesbian!"

Beast Boy and Cyborg returned from there trip, laughing, relaxed, and their arms bundled up with various kinds of crap. Cyborg added more BBQ sauces and cookbooks to his collection, Beast Boy found himself a couple of Sci-Fi books and comics he'd been looking for. Both of them also had bags of video games and DVDs slungover their arms, laughing madly as they reentered the tower.

"Oh, c'mon, Cy, you can't just make assumptions.." Beast Boy argued, with a madman's grin.

"Uh-uh. Not making assumptions, and not saying this to be mean. I was a spy in that whole HIVE thing, yeah? There were a buncha times I caught Jinx doing that..."

Cyborg paused - and then performed the best impression of a sighing, blushing schoolgirl he could.

"...And every time she did, she was looking at the GIRLS in the class."

"No way! What about Gizmo?"

"Little punk's too obsessed with tech to try and find himself a date."

"Mammoth?"

"If you think I was paying attention to Mammoth's sexual tones...Brrrr..."

They burst out in laughter again, riding the elevator back up to the living room/kitchen, dropping off their new possessions where appropriate. Games set down messily, movies spilling out, and sauces hastily thrown into the fridge. Cyborg picked up a copy of Anchorman - a personal fave between BB and Cy - and tossed it into the DVD player. However, the opening credits were hastily interrupted by -

"Hello, friends! I did not see you this morning! Where have you been?"

Starfire.

Cyborg let out a sly smile, Beast Boy being left with a look of 'Help me' on his face. Cyborg decided their was only one natural course of action as BB's beast friend.

Tease.

"Oh, hey, Star! Me and Best were just out in the city...buying movies, books, games...talkin'..."

Starfire flew over from the stairs in the fit of glee that always seemed to hold her, setting herself down in the kitchen, her bubbliness uninterrupted. She was dressed in floppy gray skater pants with a purple ridged sweater. She probably went shopping for her own a couple of days ago. Starfire's taste in clothing was unmistakable. Not because it was particularly sophisticated or rebellious, but moreso for almost intentional mismatch. Star came over to the fridge, looking for peach juice, finding it, and pouring herself a rather oversized glass while continuing Beast Boy's torture by responding to Cyborg.

"Oh? What were you and Beast Boy talking about?" She said, still filling up her glass.

"I think maybe Beast Boy should talk to you in private about that.."

"A private talk?" She cocked her head towards Beast Boy, a mix of curiosity and wonder filling her expression. She stopped pouring the drink, setting the pitcher down. "Talking privately with me? I think I would like that! Let's go have a private talk, Beast Boy!" She grabbed him by the collar, ready to hop, skip, and fly her way to her room, before Beast Boy quickly cut her off.

"Woah, hey, wait, Starfire - gotta talk to Cyborg real quick. And, uhm, you...you have that peach juice to drink. Yeah!" He scooted off to the couch as fast as he could, trying to stare down the maniacally grinning Cyborg.

"Are you out of your MIND?!" Beast Boy whispered feverishly.

"Hey, we agreed she was the next one to talk to on your 'To-do' list inside your closet." He smirked, delighting in BB's panic.

"Yeah, but..."

"Aww, are you chickening out?"

"Of course I'm chickening out! It's scary as hell having to tell all of you guys 'Hey, I like cock AND pussy!'" He scrunched up his face, frowning, before releasing and whimpering a bit. "An' I wanted to watch Anchorman with ya..."

"Tell you what. You go talk to Starfire and force yourself to explain what bisexuality is to her, and I won't watch Anchorman till you get back."

Beast Boy stared on. He needed more. Cyborg sighed, relenting, giving into something he never expected to do.

"...I'll make you a tempeh burrito too. No meat. Just tempeh."

Beast Boy smiled. This one was going in his little book of blackmail later. He came back over to starfire, who had just wiped off a peach juice mustache, and silently nodded. Starfire giggled, grabbed him by the collar again, and flew through the tower recklessly, leaving Beast Boy gagging on his own spit, and slamming into the floor once they reached her room.

Starfire, by nature, simply smiled, and led him into her room.

It was...simple. Clean. Unnaturally clean. There were spots that pointed out Starfire's hyperfemininity here and there, but for the most part, it was an ordinary room in a very extraordinary tower. She sat down on her bed, patting Beast Boy over.

Beast Boy walked slowly over, while his mind kicked in an adrenaline rush served in a cocktail of panic, with a general taste of 'What the hell am I gonna say?'. His brain fried a few circuits overclocking the flow of neurons, before he arrived at the most obvious, as well as most likely to make Beast Boy insanely nervous, solution.

Treat it like a lesson. Starfire probably has no clue what bisexuality is.


"So, what did you want to talk about that had to be private, Beast Boy?" She looked over, an expression of such innocence and sweetness that it could rot one's teeth and turn their insides into marshmallows and baby ducks.

'Get it out.' Beast Boy thought. 'Get it out now.'

"Starfire, I'm bisexual."

"What is that?"

Beast Boy expected that.

"Uhm, well...you like Robin, right?"

"Oh, yes, Robin is very nice!"

"And you like him in a different way than you like Raven. Right?"

Starfire nodded eagerly, as if she was getting graded on a test.

"So...there are things you'd do with guys, that you wouldn't do with girls, right?"

"I'm not sure I understand, Beast Boy."

'Great.' He thought. 'I thought I might be able to get through this one scott free. Oh well...'

"Okay. Umnh. How can I put this. You've kissed Robin, yeah?"

Starfire blushed wildly, a sputtering of 'ums' and 'uhs' firing out of her mouth.

"Star. Star! I ain't gonna tell anybody. You just need to answer the question, so I can tell you what...bisexuality is."

Star breathed a little hard, trying to bring her nervousness and embarassment under control, then nodding.

"Yes, I...I have kissed robin."

'I officially owe Cy 20 bucks.' His mind pounded out again. 'No way they've had sex yet.'

"But, even if you really liked a girl, you wouldn't kiss them like you'd kiss robin, right?"

Starfire eyes rolled around a bit, and her lips puckered. She seemed to exist often in a land of grey areas between black and white, constantly finding a 'maybe' or a 'it might' or 'what if'...

Regardless, she provided the answer Beast Boy wanted.

"No, I don't think I would. Why do you ask?"

"Because if I really liked someone, the way you like Robin, I would kiss them. I would kiss a boy or a girl if I really liked them."

Starfire thought about it again, shorter this time. She pored through her memory on Tamaran, thinking about what Beast Boy had just told her.

"I have never heard of something like that."

"But you're okay with it...aren't you?"

"Well." she said, bluntly, gesturing with her hands. "I like boys. Robin likes girls. Why shouldn't someone be able to like both?"

She then grinned, not knowing the wisdom behind her words.

"...Thanks, starfire." He leaned in, and hugged softly. Starfire returned the favor with an almost rib cracking enthusiasm.

"Oh! You do not have a boyfriend! Or a girlfriend! Are you allowed to have both when you are bi-sex-u-al? I have so many questions! We must tell Raven and Robin, and maybe they will have ans-"

"Erk! No! No, I'll...I'll tell Robin and Raven on my own, okay? Something I have to do on my own."

She nodded, understanding very well the need to do something without assistance.

A long pause held them, each looking around the room, before Beast Boy spoke up again.

"So, uhm...wanna go watch Anchorman with me and Cy?"

"I would be DELIGHTED!"

Beast Boy quickly found himself being flown around at breakneck speed down the tower, once again almost gagging on his own saliva.