A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

Also if you've enjoyed reading this story, please check out The Soul Engine for me! It would really mean a lot!

Drama~

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In the end, he decides that a middle ground is best. He doesn’t want to push Starfire too hard. He doesn’t want her to feel chased away by any sort of aggressive attitude. So instead, he settles for deepening the kiss, letting his hands remain on her waist. At the most, he lets them drift down to her hips but no further than that. And he’s fully prepared to let her go the moment she pulls away from him.

Except that doesn’t happen. The moment of impetus decision making certainly passes, but rather than jerking out of his grasp as she realizes what she’s doing, Lucien notes that the beautiful alien princess leans in further as well. He’s giving her his all, of course… and his all is certainly no laughing matter. Even if its just basic touching and kissing, Lucien can use his abilities here to his advantage. His fingers press into her flesh in just the right way, his lips against her lips, his tongue swapping spit with her tongue.

All of it is designed to give Starfire the best kiss of her life… and from the way she reacts, it’s working. Her hands, which start on his shoulders and could easily have pushed him away at any time, instead move to wrap around his neck. She pulls him deeper into the kiss, moaning softly into his mouth. Lucien, for his part, doesn’t go any further than he already is. He doesn’t take over entirely, he merely shows her what he can do and invites her to meet him halfway.

The Tamaranean most definitely meets him halfway. Hell, she goes further than that. He’s the first to deepen their kiss, but Starfire seems like she wants to deepen it even more. Like she wants to stick her tongue all the way down the back of his throat and hike a leg up the side of his body. She feels like she’s a moment away from doing exactly that, but before she can…

“… Starfire?!”

Robin’s voice echoes across the auditorium, causing Lucien and Starfire to blink and finally end their prolonged lip lock. Only then does Lucien realize how quiet it’s gotten at the Prom. The music is still playing in the background, but the people… the people have all stopped to stare at him and Starfire. Just how long were they kissing for that to happen? Hell, it hadn’t even happened when Kitten and Robin were kissing!

But then to be fair, while Lucien was just wearing a tuxedo over his costume, Starfire was in a dress that showed off her alien heritage quite… well he had to admit. She was beautiful, drop-dead gorgeous even, and it was clear that just as many if not more people had been watching her with Lucien than had been watching Robin with Kitten tonight.

Certainly, the silence that had fallen had ultimately pulled Robin and Kitten out of THEIR embrace. Or maybe Robin had just finally dragged himself away from Kitten long enough to realize that everyone else was watching Starfire and Lucien lip lock. Either way… the Titans Leader looks betrayed, staring at the two of them like he can hardly believe his eyes.

If Lucien still wondered whether or not Starfire and Robin had feelings for each other yet this far back in time… well, today had certainly put that to bed. They might not have acted on those feelings, they might not have ever told each other that they cared for each other that way… but Starfire’s actions today had made it clear she was crushing hard on Robin. And now Robin’s reaction to their kiss made it equally clear he had a crush on Starfire.

Privately, Lucien felt that they were both too old at this point for things like crushes. But then, he’d quite literally been involuntarily isolated and confined to a sickly body for his entire first life, so what did he know? And then when he’d come back, he’d let his own hormones get the better of him where Mercy Graves was concerned. All in all… he could acknowledge that he wasn’t an expert.

“Robin! Robin, ignore them! You’re supposed to be MY Prom Date!”

Kitten, meanwhile, is her whiny, bitchy self as always. The blonde is tugging on Robin’s arm, trying desperately to get his attention back on her even as her eyes shoot daggers at the pair of them. It’s obvious from the way she’s looking around at everyone else that she wants not just Robin’s attention, but the attention of everyone in the auditorium. She wants to be the Queen Bee. Or more appropriately given the night’s festivities, she probably wants to be Prom Queen.

But Robin isn’t having it. The hero lets his emotions get the better of him at long last, yanking himself free of Kitten’s grasp and stomping his way over to where Starfire and Lucien are standing. He barely spares Lucien an ugly look before laying into Starfire.

“What the hell, Starfire?! What are you even doing here?! You shouldn’t BE here! And certainly not with this… this… guy!”

Lucien, fully capable of reading the room, nevertheless puts a hand out for Robin to shake.

“Hey, I’m Remedy.”

Needless to say, Robin doesn’t take his hand. He just scowls harder as he bites out a jealousy-laden response.

“I don’t care.”

And oooh, he shouldn’t have said that. Because not only was his initial approach the wrong way to come at this, but now he’s making himself look even worse. In front of both the audience… and Starfire herself.

“You don’t care, Robin? You don’t care?! Well you should! Remedy’s healing helped Beast Boy! And he’s been keeping me company all day long while I made sure nothing bad happened to you! You ask why I’m here?! Remedy and I are here to watch your back!”

Robin scowls at that, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I don’t NEED you to watch my back, Starfire. I need you to follow orders!”

Which of course prompts a scoff from Starfire.

“No, you’re right. It’s obvious you don’t need anyone to watch your back when you’re all too happy to be sucking face with the viper who’s blackmailed you all day long!”

To his credit, Robin looks disgusted at being reminded that he just got done kissing Kitten. Privately, Lucien certainly doesn’t think Robin wanted to do it… rather, he doesn’t think Robin wanted to do any of this. But Robin is doing such a good job digging his own grave at the moment that Lucien isn’t about to step in and mediate between the two of them. He’s not sure it would be appreciated anyways.

“You-!”

Robin’s next response, however, is drowned out by an almost inhuman, feral shriek. The attention of everyone in the auditorium, the three of them included, swings around to see Kitten marching towards them with an enraged look in her eyes and a bright red face. But what Lucien notices most of all… is the remote held tightly in one of her hands.

“YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE MY DATE TO PROM, ROBIN! YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE GETTING INTO LOVE TRIANGLES INVOLVING OTHER GIRLS! YOU ARE-!”

Look, Lucien might be here to steal Starfire out from under an unsuspecting Robin, but he’s not a villain, okay? And so when Kitten finally brings up the hand holding the remote… Lucien figures it’s better to be safe than sorry. What’s the point of cat-like reflexes, Tamaranean Physiology, and all that training if he’s not going to use it?

Quick as a whip, Lucien darts forward and snatches the remote from Kitten’s raised hand. Just like that. He doesn’t know what it does. He doesn’t need to know. She’s stomped her away across the auditorium and is only a few feet away from them. More than close enough for him to move faster than she can react.

Of course, no one is expecting it. No one is expecting him to be inhumanly fast. As he pulls back to Starfire’s side, remote in hand, Lucien watches everyone stare at him in shock… but none more so than Kitten herself who looks like she cannot believe his audacity.

“You… y-you… GIVE IT BACK! THAT REMOTE’S FOR ME AND ME ALONE! DADDY GAVE IT TO ME AND YOU BETTER GIVE IT HERE RIGHT AWAY OR ELSE YOU’LL BE SORRY!”

She goes after him and Lucien really doesn’t want to hit a girl… but he also doesn’t want to reveal too much about his powers. Healing is one thing. Knocking Kitten out with a touch, which he could easily do, is another entirely. Fortunately, before she can reach him, Starfire gets in the way and cuts her off. Eyes blazing bright green, the alien princess looms over Kitten… and roars in her face.

Kitten freezes in place like a prey animal confronted with a much larger predator. And then, eyes darting from Starfire’s angry expression over to the remote in Lucien’s hands… she lets out a terrified sob and turns and runs.

That’s the end of it, really. Though there’s still some clean up afterwards. Turns out the remote controls Killer Moth’s mutant creations, and so long as Lucien has it in his hands, then the Titans working their way into Killer Moth’s base have things well in hand there.

By the end of the night, both Kitten and her father are arrested. Kitten’s charges are mostly for speeding all day long, though she does get a charge for being accomplice to her father’s plans to hold the city hostage. Lucien, privately, can hardly believe that Killer Moth was stupid enough to give his daughter the only control remote for the moths. He’d seemed like such a competent villain… but in the end, he’d been brought down by his own strange need to keep his spoiled brat of a child happy at all costs.

Of course, there was one more awkward moment where the Prom Organizers wanted to name Starfire and Lucien… or rather, Starfire and Remedy as their Prom Queen and King. Needless to say, with Robin looming and fuming in the background, that hadn’t come to pass. Lucien had very politely turned down the opportunity on his and Starfire’s behalf, while Starfire had seemed relatively lost in thought and introspective.

Finally though, they’d made their way back to Titans Tower, meeting up with the other three members of the Titans for a debrief. A very awkward, very stilted debrief. It was obvious that Robin recognized the necessity of Lucien’s presence during the debrief… but equally obvious that he wanted Lucien gone as swiftly as possible. Leading to things coming to a head at the end as Robin crosses his arms over his chest and glares at Lucien from behind his mask.

“Right. So that’s it then. Thank you for your assistance, Remedy. You can go now. Don’t call us. We’ll call you.”

It’s clear that even the ‘thank you’ is like pulling teeth for Robin. The rest of it is much more in line with what he probably actually wants to say, even as he makes it abundantly clear through tone and posture that he’s going to lose Lucien’s number as fast as humanly possible. Unfortunately for the Titans Leader, his voice isn’t the only voice in the room.

“What?! You can’t just send Remedy away! It’s already way too late…and the Tower has plenty of room in it! He can stay in one of the sets of guest quarters.”

Lucien smiles as Starfire speaks up in his defense. Robin, meanwhile, scowls all the harder. But before he can debate the topic with Starfire, Beast Boy also leans in and gives his two cents.

“That seems fair to me. Remedy got me back on my feet super fast during that fight earlier. And whether you think you needed back up or not, Robin… they did both have your back today. The least we can do is give the guy a room for the night.”

Bristling, Robin turns his gaze towards Raven and Terra. The swing votes, one might think. If both of them sided against Lucien staying the night in Titans Tower, than it WOULD be three versus two and the topic would be settled. But whether Robin actually thought they would side with him or not… that’s not what happens.

“I don’t care.”

“I… I think it seems fine too?”

And like that, the vote is three for letting him stay the night, one against, and one abstain. Lucien, of course, puts his hands up in surrender when Robin turns to glare daggers at him.

“Hey man, I can head out if you really want. No sweat. I-!”

But… just as Lucien somewhat anticipated, Starfire interjects. Though even he’s not expecting her to outright grab him by his arm.

“No! You’re staying! I will show you to the guest quarters. Please, come with me.”

Well, seems like he has no choice, huh? As Starfire leads him from the common room, Lucien chances one last look over his shoulder in time to see Robin stomping off in another direction, Beast Boy chatting with Raven… and Terra looking his way only to quickly avert her gaze when she sees him looking. Then he and Starfire turn the corner and he lets her lead him to where he’ll be staying for the night.

Of course, once they’re actually there… Starfire takes him by the hands, blushing as she looks down for a moment.

“… I apologize for Robin. He’s usually more levelheaded than this… he’s a good leader. But today he’s been…”

Lucien shrugs and tries to help her finish her sentence.

“… Stressed?”

But Starfire just shakes her head.

“No! He’s been acting like an idiot!”

Well, that was harsher than he was expecting. Of course, with her hands in his, Lucien does feel her heart pounding… so he’s not as surprised when Starfire suddenly leans in for a kiss again. Nor is he surprised when she pushes the door open behind him after a few seconds and pushes him back into the room before closing them both in.

Her hands are on his body, so it only seems fair that his hands be on hers. Lucien finds himself being walked backwards until he hits the edge of a bed, at which point he sits down on it and Starfire eagerly climbs into his lap. Her dress doesn’t leave much to the imagination as she straddles him and grinds into his crotch.

This is happening now. He’s played his cards right it would seem. But more than that, Robin had played HIS cards horribly, horribly wrong. Admittedly, Lucien hadn’t expected things to move quite this fast between him and Starfire when he’d set out to insert himself into the Titans earlier this morning. Blackfire would be happy… so long as he continued to handle this properly.

There was just one thing. Starfire seemed primed to fuck, but her hands… her hands were starting to creep upwards, perhaps towards his mask. And if she took it off, she would see his face.

He wasn’t bald, but he still did look a lot like his father. Would she recognize Lex Luthor in his features? Should he risk it? He could tell her he wasn’t ready to reveal his identity yet to her, and maybe she’d be up for having sex with Remedy instead. Or he could tell her only his first name and hope that refuge in obscurity would see him through. Or he could confess the truth of his parentage now. Would Starfire still be willing to fuck Lucien Luthor, like she seemed willing to fuck Remedy? Was he willing to risk it all to find out?

[X] Let her remove the mask, confess his true identity as the bastard son of Lex Luthor - 72%