Sorry it was later than expected. I made some changes to the plot in this chapte so thanks for your patience, especially those with the lovely reviews for my first chapter!

Chapter 1: The Fateful Date

Dick's POV

Freak, I was going to be late.

I returned home from work at 7.50, which was bad news because the quickest shower I ever had was at 8 minutes and it took 15 minutes to drive to the café. No way was I going to meet this Kory smelling like office and tobacco and rich snobby businesspeople. I was not even spared a Saturday for myself. Well, time for a new record, then.

I arrived at the café called "Under the Stars" at 8.20 pm and I thanked God it was not as bad as I expected. Surely this meeting did not matter so much but I had a reptutation to keep. Dick Grayson was not a man of tardiness (despite occasional slips such as this).

I ran my hands through my black hair to make sure my hair was in perfect condition. I was not someone who was too concerned about appearance and all but honest advice to all guys out there: you need to look decent for the ladies. I decided to wear a white basic round-collared shirt, a navy blue blazer and black pants. Finished off with a pair of sunglasses to add the 'coolness' and I was ready to go.

Again, for a weird reason, I felt my knees shaking a bit out of nervousness. I could not stop thinking about this meeting, about this mysterious owner and her beautiful voice. A part of me really hoped that she had a look to match her voice. If not, hell it would be a really awkward meeting. I went to sleep last night with the constant made-up image of a Kory Anders in my head, praying that Dick Grayson had not turned into a creepy and crazy virgin who became obsessive with this girl only after a phone call. Still, no matter how much I tried to dimiss such thoughts, I failed miserably.

Such as now, upon entering this café.

With the purple clutch in my left hand, I confidently opened the wooden door.

"GREETINGGSSS!"

I leapt back at the sudden sound; my heart beating two times faster. I was totally, totally not prepared to be ambushed! I opened my eyes only to collide with a pair of bright blue eyes staring straight into my soul, a hint of guilt and worried flashed here and there as the girl slightly titled her head.

"Oh my I'm really sorry Mr. Grayson! Are you alright?"

"Ah..uh…yes I'm fine." On a verge of a minor heart attack there actually, but I wouldn't admit that.

"It is my most pleasure meeting you at last! I am Kory Anders, we spoke yesterday. I spotted you coming towards the café from the window where I was serving and rushed to the door to greet you.I am really really sorry for my inappropriate behaviour. I did not have the intention to scare you!"

"Ok ok Kory no need to worry I'm still alive. Should we sit down first?"

"Oh yes my bad. Please follow me, I have already reserved us a table" Kory gestured to a nearby coffee table near at the back of the shop. "Hey Donna!"

"You know the staff here?"

"Yes. I work here actually. Night shifts only though. I believe you would like something to drink, yes?" Kory asked. Ok still I could not deny that she had a really really sweet voice and a bit of accent. Was she a foreigner?

Before I even had time to fully assess her face to decide whether I wanted to spend more time with this girl or I needed to press the escape button, something about Kory's smile during that mere 30 seconds that enchanted me to say "Yes, a cup of black coffee should be nice".

As she waved at a black-haired waitress, I took the time to check her out.

To be honest, Kory was really disappointing.

Large beautiful blue eyes and a good height at around 5 ft. 8 were the only good features I could dig out after scanning her from top to toes like, 5 times. If only she did not have lots of dimple, messy hazel nut hair with long bangs that cover most of her pretty eyes and those loose, horribly-designed striped shirt and pants (that made it impossible to deduce whether she had any curves at all), she would barely be a 6. All her features for some reason just did not seem to match at all, especially her obviously fake tan, for it was too perfect to be true. Excuse me and my playboy instincts but compared to all the girls I have had for the past 2 years, Kory was just not up to my standards.

So, unfortunately, I chose to carry out plan B: return the clutch, finish half the drink then leave and erase everything about this experience once and forever.

May be not her smile, though. It was rather of one the most radiant smiles I had ever seen. The contagious type that magically put everyone in the 10 metres radius smile along, you know? Seriously, the grumpy dude two tables from us just smiled after looking at her!

"Mr Grayson," Kory turned back to me after ordering our drinks, "I must really give my thanks to you for helping me to find my clutch. It was truly heroic of you although to be completely truthful, I never expected someone like you to have done such thing."

"Oh really? And what made you not expect so, Kory?"

"Well, not everyday do you see the prince of Gotham himself picking up a clutch instead of another female on a Friday night"

Let's just say that I was slightly taken back by her straightforwardness. Wow so this Kory has some guts to compensate for her looks, huh? I kinda like that…

"So you have read the news, at last. Yesterday when you asked me what I looked like, I thought you haven't heard about me."

"Yeah, I was only told about all your conquers last night after the call by my friends. I just moved here from Jump City so at first I imagined you to be some kind of knight in shiny armour sent to Earth by God."

"But don't look like one?" Dick said with a smirk.

Kory slightly blushed before taking her matcha floats from the Donna girl "Well, Donna over here will surely disagre."

"Yeppie. But here's your drink anyway, dick"

"Hey, is this how you express your gratitude to the one who just returned you your precious clutch?" I started to glared at this disrespectful and awful-looking Kory when something was tugging at my sleeve until a timid "excuse me" was heard.

"You are Mr Prince, yes?"

I turned around to find an adorable red-haired boy of around 5 years of age staring at me with his large emerald eyes.

"Uhm, no?"

"Yes, yes you are. I saw you on the magazine and heard Donna talking about you being the Prince of this land!" Who was this kid and did he watch too many Disney movies or something?

"Ryan! I told you not to disturb your sister!" Donna ran towards Ryan, attempting to lead him back to the staff room.

"No! But I need to ask Mr Prince to marry Kory!"

Did I just hear what I think I just heard?

My cousin told me he hated the attitude in Dick's narration in this chapter but hey, I enjoyed writing this *laughing hard*

By the way, if you want to have an idea of how Dick looked like in this fic, I suggest you go to Starcave's tumblr. The illustration is super close to what I've always daydreamed about him hehe.

Do review if you can. That'd give me lots of motivation to work faster *wink*