Chapter One - Begin
Ten years earlier
Secret identity or not, Dick Grayson had always been somewhat confident in his interactions with others. Perhaps he could link it to his earliest memories of being on stage with his parents, but he felt he had a natural ability to communicate exactly what was on his mind without feeling unsure or nervous. Recently however, he'd begun to question himself.
Ever since the incident two weeks ago involving the auburn haired alien, he'd started to feel uncertain about himself. He found himself scrutinising everything from the tone of his voice to his choice of words and body language whenever he was around her. He'd never come across a being like Starfire before, the sheer extremity of her feelings threw the calm and collected hero off balance. From violent rage to fits of rambling joy, he never knew exactly what to expect from her.
It had only been a few days since they all came to an agreement to form a crime fighting unit in Jump city. After multiple boxes of take-out food and hours of rambunctious conversation they finally settled on a name for their team - the Teen Titans. Since then, he and Cyborg had spent most of the day drawing up blueprints for their new base which the two of them had decided to construct in the shape of a giant "T" despite Beast Boy's objection that a simple letter was not cool enough. ("It needs to stand out as a beacon of justice that inspires fear in the hearts of criminals Beast Boy" was Dick's discussion-ending response).
Throughout the conversation Raven had largely stayed quiet, only interjecting when the topic of her own bedroom came up. Starfire on the other hand joined in animately, laughing and clapping at Beast Boy and Cyborg's constant bickering and antics.
"So Starfire, do you have any particular requests for your room? I'm not too sure about interior design on the planet Tameran but we want you to feel as at home as possible whilst you're here." Dick said, smiling at the Tamaranean girl.
"Oh friend Cyborg, friend Robin I am most excited for the building of our new abode! All I ask for is a large window in my room of the bed as my people are accustomed to sleeping under the light of the six moons of Tamaran." The alien girl said happily, grinning between him and his new Cyborg team mate.
Dick felt himself flush slightly as he looked at the auburn haired girl, trying to push the memories of their strange kiss out of his mind.
"It's a pity that we only have one moon on Earth." He kicked himself mentally for saying something so lame.
"The Earth's moon is just as large and bright as our second moon Tagnor. I believe I will feel, as you say, most at the home in our new tower." She looked directly at her new team leader and smiled fully at him, unable to hide her sheer joy at finally being able to find somewhere she felt she belonged.
"Before we all move in, there is one important thing you all seemed to have overlooked." The dark haired girl pointed out, her nervousness audible as she grew physically uncomfortable with suddenly becoming the centre of attention.
"And what may that be, Raven?" Dick asked curiously, glancing over the various lists and blueprints scattered across the table.
"Well, if we're all going to live together how is this whole secret identity thing going to work?" She asked frankly, inclining her head towards the boy she knew was more than just 'Robin', whilst still avoiding eye-contact. "And by how I mean to say that it will not."
"Yeah, that would be a huge problem for me." The green boy said, attempting to deepen his voice.
Raven raised her eyebrow at the younger boy. "You have no secret, you're gr-"
"The girl's got a point." Cyborg interjected. "Although I'm not sure how secret any of our identities are. I mean Star's an alien so she has no identity to hide, me and BB can hardly disguise ourselves and Raven she's..."
"I'm not from around here."
"She's not from around here." The cybernetic teen repeated.
"Do you mean to say that Robin is not... Robin?" Starfire leaned in to the boy wonder's face, staring at his mask. "I'm afraid I do not understand, I am still unfamiliar with the customs of Earth. Who is Robin if he isn't himself?"
"No Starfire, Robin is not the name I was born with. It is a name and an identity I took on in order to protect the people around me from being targeted by the criminals we pursued." He let out a small sigh, looking around at his curious team mates.
"It's not that I don't trust you all, I do, but you'll have to give me a little time." Dick requested of his new team. "You understand that I will not simply be revealing my own identity here and however much we struggled to see eye to eye, I could never give away his secret without letting him know. I owe him at least that much."
Starfire looked at him curiously, not missing the bitterness in his voice. "Who ar-"
Before she could finish her question Beast Boy erupted with excitement across the table, sending a few sheets of paper flying much to Cyborg's dismay.
"Is he coming here? To this city? Or are we going to Gotham? This is crazy dude am I finally going to meet B-"
"No he's not coming here. Nor will we be going to see him. A phone call will be more than enough." The spiky haired teen grumbled, his mood visibly darkening at the mention of his mentor.
One Month Later
After the tower had been completed the Titans wasted no time in moving in and decorating their rooms and communal spaces. They'd begun to settle into a steady routine as they slowly began to become more familiar with each other's quirks and habits. Since they had established themselves as the city's crime-fighting unit they had only dealt with minor skirmishes with Jump City's low-level crooks, which had allowed them to familiarise themselves with the fighting style of each member. Robin's experience, skills of deduction and organisation naturally led to him being placed as the team's de facto leader, much to the older Cyborg's chagrin. ("Why do I have to take orders from someone younger and shorter than me?") For the most part however, they had begun to gel both as a team and as friends, and Dick knew he could no longer put off the talk he had promised his team.
Since their last discussion on the issue, no talk on Robin's true identity had been brought up again amongst the Titans, or at least not when their secretive leader was within earshot. But Robin had decided to put his absolute faith into his team. Although he had not known them for long, he knew that trust flourished when honestly was practised right from the start (or so Alfred had told him during their phone call last week).
When the team gathered into the living room after receiving their leader's call, they all instinctively knew what the conversation was going to be about.
As they walked around the semi-circled sofa they each paused in shock, staring down at their maskless leader for the first time.
"Dick Grayson! You mean you're the Dick Grayson? The son of the multi-billionaire Bruce Wayne? Wait, hold up, hold up -so does that mean that Bruce Wayne is B-"
"Will you sit down and stop screeching, I'm sure half of the planet now knows Robin's identity thanks to your humongous mouth." Raven hissed.
"Woah, I was not expecting that. Man, I never would have guessed that Gotham's golden boy would turn out to be the boy wonder." Cyborg exclaimed slapping his friend on the shoulder in jest.
"My, you have the most beautiful blue eyes!" Starfire cooed, floating before the black-haired boy and absent-mindedly laying a finger on his cheek with a grin.
Richard felt his ears heating up with the contact and cleared his throat attempting to regain control over his emotions.
"Well, I-" He begun until the alien girl interrupted him, the small twinkle of mischief in her eyes not going amiss.
"So how are we to refer to you from now?"
"When we are not on missions or other business you can call me Dick, I suppose. Likewise I will call them both Victor and Garfield." Richard said, nodding towards Cyborg and Beast Boy.
"Hey how did you-" Garfield began.
"As Vic pointed out last time, it's not very difficult to get information on a green boy and a cybernetic human being." Richard said with an air of smugness, not trying to hide his glee at being able to find out his team mates identities so easily whilst they'd struggled to discover his. Victor and Garfield both frowned at him in response.
"So, how about you two? Don't you have a secret identity to share with the gang?" Garfield asked, playfully wriggling his eyebrows.
The dark haired girl responded "Raven is the name I was born with." her face soured slightly as she continued "I have no other identity."
They all looked over to Starfire who still wore a look of confusion on her face. "Is Starfire not my Earth name?" She questioned looking at her leader's lips. She wondered if the language transference had not been fully successful.
"It makes sense but it's rather unusual for an Earth name." Richard responded, his voice faltering slightly as his eyes darted away from the beautiful alien girl.
"You should choose something different, as a civilian name."
"How do you say your name in your own language?" Cyborg questioned.
"My Tamaranean name is Koriand'r, although I haven't been called that for a while." She replied, her hand moving to hold her arm.
"Then how about we call you Kori?" Dick suggested, standing up and squeezing her arm reassuringly.
"That name is most wonderful!" she exclaimed full of unbridled joy. She threw her arms around Richard's neck, accidentally pulling him off his feet as she had still been floating before them.
"I have not been called by this name for the longest while." She said with a distant look descending on her face. Dick rubbed her arm slightly smiling as she almost instinctively leaned in to his touch.
AN: Hello everyone, I'm back with an update already! I sincerely apologise to anyone suffering from whiplash after this sudden change in tone, but I feel it's necessary to explore the origins of the group and how they mesh together in more depth. The rating of this fic should serve as a warning, do not let the light-heartedness fool you, dark themes will be explored in the future and I may or may not give warning for when they do appear. I'm also searching for a beta although I'm not quite sure how that section of the site works so for now you will have to bare with my terrible spelling/grammar. This is my very first story, ever, so every review means the world to me and gives me the confidence to keep writing. Thank you for reading!
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First rule of the Titans, You do not speak of the B-