Chapter 1

"Raven, hurry up will ya? We'll miss dinner if you don't get here in the next five minutes" Richard yelled impatiently from the Kitchen to his girlfriend's room down the hallway of the Titans Tower. His friend, Victor, better known as the hero Cyborg chuckled quietly in the corner of the table he was sitting at, at his friend's impatience as he ate through his TV dinner.

Women, thought Richard, exasperated. While it had taken him a mere ten minutes to get showered, get dressed in his best suit and tie, and get his best cologne on, and get his hair spiked and gelled, it had taken Rae almost 15 Minutes just in the shower, and now she had spent almost 10 minutes on her makeup, getting her dress on, fixing her hair…. Why women take forever to make themselves look presentable I'll never know, he wondered to himself. He would never voice such thoughts aloud of course. Her wrath, along with a handful of things such as Tofu and all tofu related foods, and Tamaren Cuisine, was one of the few things he truly feared. It wasn't her he feared so much. He just feared the fact that when she got angry, and really angry, not just the Irritated attitude she used to wear like a mask when they were younger, Raven was, Richard was ashamed to admit, Terrifying. During their year and half long relationship, they had gotten into 3 arguments, 3 truly bad arguments: The first one ended with Richard having to buy a new Laptop after she ''accidentally'' made his first one explode; the second ended with him being thrown out of his own room, and made to sleep on the couch for a whole week; and the third argument ended with his Motorcycle being thrown, head first into the Jump City harbor. This had taught Richard not to pick a fight with her unless it was really, really important.

This is important, he thought to himself. She doesn't know that though, he argued internally. She thinks it's just another dinner for date night. Richard smiled to himself as felt the small, little box with the engagement ring nestled in his bottom coat pocket. This will surprise her, he thought to himself happily. Raven rarely if ever got surprised by anything, or anyone. This will though, he thought to himself, savoring the thought of seeing her beautiful amethyst eyes widen at the sight of the ring as he pulled out it out of the box and showed it to her. Just to see her surprised for once was one of the perks of asking her to marry him were going to be.

His happy thoughts however were interrupted as his prospective bride to be replied "Dick you said you wanted me to look good for tonight. Well, Boy Wonder, that takes time, so be patient."

Richard cringed internally at her words, as she used the two nicknames he hated: Boy Wonder, a bygone title from his time as the sidekick [Partner, he thought to himself, irritated. I was his partner, not sidekick] to the dark Knight, Batman of Gotham City; and Dick for, well obvious reasons. When he was younger, he hadn't minded the nickname so much. As he got older though, the sniggers and jokes he heard from people started to irritate him, so now he insisted that people call him either by his full name, Richard [or any variant of Richard, like Rick, Richie etc.] or by his code name, Nightwing [He had by now given up the title of Robin in exchange for a new one.] Unfortunately, Rae, ever since she had learned his real name, had been calling him Dick when she wanted to irritate him, which was most of the time, now that he thought about it. Ah well, he thought smugly. Two can play at this game, my love.

'' When i said look Good, Goth Girl, i didn't say you could take a whole hour doing your hair". Although he could not see or hear her from the kitchen, he knew that she was cringing as she heard her nickname spoken aloud. The name Goth Girl had been given to her by the local Jump City newspapers, sort of as a title, like Boy Wonder, the Dark Knight, just not as well thought of, or original [ Hey, no one said that the Jump City media were renowned for their creativity or originality, he thought to himself, smiling. Like him she initially did not mind her new name, but then the jokes started to come more and more frequently from both her teammates [With the teams resident comedian and shape shifter Changeling, formerly Beast Boy AKA Garfield Logan, leading the charge ] and by the locals and media, to the point where she was called Goth Girl more often than her real codename, Raven, or even her real name [ to those who knew it of course, i.e the Team] Rachel, she had gotten sick of it. When Garfield, either out of boredom, stupidity, fearlessness, or had just plain forgot not to call her by the much hated name, decided to call her "Goth Girl" after she had specifically told them not to call her that, she decided to bewitch several different items around the tower, which included their basketball, baseballs, and tennis balls, to follow Gar around all day and pelt him repeatedly, after which Gar suffered several small bruises on his arms and neck for a week. Though they had all laughed at their friends misfortune, feeling little to no sympathy for him as he had brought his misfortune upon himself, they all got the hint: Don't Call Raven by her nickname.

We'll all of them except me, he thought to himself smugly. While he didn't use the name often, for one because she didn't really like to be called Goth Girl and he could understand the feeling, and two because he knew she would lose her patience with him eventually if he didn't stop [and he didn't want to get the Garfield Treatment from her, that was sure], he would still use it every now and again, either to annoy her, or to get her attention. While she wouldn't have tolerated any of her other friends using the name [with the possible exception of Kori, AKA Starfire, her best friend, as Kori never used the name to demean her, merely as a nickname] she, with barely controlled irritation mind you, could tolerate it from him. They had a bond after all, one they did not share with the others. She had been inside his head and seen his deepest, darkest thoughts and memories; he had been inside her head, and seen her thoughts and memories as well. It was a bond which neither of them could ever sever, regardless of what happened to them, or their relationship. And i wouldn't want to in any case, Richard thought.

Vic turned his gaze away from his pitiful dinner [He was, by admission, a couch potato, and rarely cooked his meals if he could help it, preferring to either order takeout, or just eat ready-made meals, while occasionally cooking some pretty good Waffles now and again for breakfast.] and looked at his friend, and couldn't help a smile spread across his face at Richards joke. Then his expression got serious again.

"Hey man, don't push Rae too far with the Goth Girl thing. Remember when Titans East came to visit last month?" Victor said with a shudder.

Richard shuddered too, for he did remember the incident with Titans East. He remembered it well.