DISCLAIMER: I – in no way – own the Teen Titans.

CHAPTER FOUR – SHELTER OF THE PAST

That moment in time had been the start of their friendship. Looking up at the sunny sky above him, Richard smiled to himself; Kori loved days like this. He was currently walking through the old neighborhood in which he and Bruce stayed during his teen years. Richard was now making his way to the old park where he and Kori used to love going – before their big fight that is. Once he made it to the park, he walked slowly to the swings, where he sat alone.

"Lemme guess," a familiar voice snarled, "you're back in town avoiding something back at Gotham State."

Richard's head shot up to see his ex-girlfriend, Katherine "Kitten" Moth, the salutatorian of his graduated class at Jump City High. "Look, Kat… Kitten… whatever, I'm not avoiding anything at the university. I certainly don't have time for your little games, either-."

Kitten smirked as she took the swing beside Richard nonchalantly. "Well," she drawled, "if you're not avoiding something, then you're obviously here for someone. Kor-?"

Richard clenched his teeth together in anger; Kitten Moth was the last person he wanted to talk to about Kori and the fight that they had. "Fine, you caught me," he replied, hastily. "I'm here to retrieve an old English assignment – the stupid name project we did in the eighth grade to be exact."

Kitten rolled her eyes. "What about it, Dick?"

"I need it for my Creative Writing course," Richard responded, truthfully. "The way my project turned out in middle school is perfect; I wouldn't have done it any other way."

"You mean because she did it for you," Kitten hissed, turning to look at Richard.

Richard, looking straight ahead of him sighed as he let his memories overpower his mind once again.

"Kori, I am not let you do this for me!" Richard begged. "Please, don't do this, Star."

Kori laughed her melodic laugh as she readjusted the phone against her ear. "Richard, if you didn't want me to do the project for you, then why did you call me at midnight to tell me some sob story as to why you couldn't complete this project on your own?"

"My printer ran out of ink," Richard began, "I already told you that much."

"Then, why don't you change the ink cartridge?" Kori suggested. "I'm sure Bruce has got some sitting around in his home office. You may just be staying in a vacation home, but I'm almost positive he's got some, Richard."

"Umm," Richard stalled, "my printer's broken."

"Oh, if that's the case, you can always e-mail me your essay," she offered. "I can print them out here at my house."

Richard scratched the back of his head as he turned swiveled around in his computer chair. "Did I say printer?" he wondered. "I meant… my computer's broken."

Kori giggled as she looked over her self-portrait for her project. "Ask Alfred to fix it for you. Or you can use Bruce's computer, right?"

"Kori… please don't make me say-."

"Richard, I'll do it for you," she offered once more. "I know you haven't even started it. And at this hour of the night, I don't believe you have energy or the mind to even start it. Just answer a few questions for me about your name, okay? I just need to know what your name means in the name dictionary and what it means to you; how you got the nicknames-"

"Kori," Richard pleaded, "I can't let you do this for me!"

"I can't let you fail English!" she chuckled. "Plus, you have an interview for Jump City High's Leaders of Tomorrow, right? You need to be well-rested for that."

"Kori, you have that same interview tomorrow," Richard reminded.

"But you're a born leader," Kori explained, "This opening would be a perfect way for you to start your high school career. I'm more interested in the Drama Club, Richard. I'll do your assignment. It shouldn't take too long, right? I mean 'Richard' is a common name – derived from ancient Germanic – meaning 'brave power'."

"Someone did her research," Richard joked.

"Well, that someone knew that you weren't going to," she admitted.

Richard smiled. If memory served him right, Kori had spent the entire night working on his project while he prepared for his interview with the Student Leadership board of Jump City High. Luckily, he got into the class… and so did Kori, much to her dismay. Sighing to himself, he looked passed the jungle gym and then turned back to face Kitten.

The day Kori and Richard had found out they made it into Jump City High's Leaders of Tomorrow was the same day he had figured out that Kori was willing to do pretty much anything to ensure that he didn't fail. Granted, many people would have disagreed to Kori's cushioning Richard from failure, but Richard and the people closest to him – Rachel, Victor and Garfield – would had fought against others' words. The quartet – alongside Kori – knew that if Richard were to fail at anything he'd get some type of hell from his adoptive father, Bruce Wayne – which was the only reason as to why Kori offered the type of help that she usually did. Just knowing that Kori did everything in her power to make sure that Richard's life was a little easier was enough to him.

"You're only going to use it because she made it, aren't you?" Kitten repeated.

In his mind, Richard knew that Kitten was right.

"So what if I am?" he wondered, looking up to the sky.

"You haven't changed one bit!" she shrieked. "You've been this way since we broke up. Every time something becomes too much for you to handle, you run to the shelter of your past – presumably the one with Kori Anders!"

"That is not true!" Richard shouted, jumping off of the swing.

"You know it is, Dick Grayson!" Kitten bellowed back. "You're a lost cause…"

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Chapter four is officially complete. And I must say that I am proud of myself for it. That leaves two more chapters to rewrite and then I can proceed with the storyline. So I got a chance to look at some of the reviews that were left on some of the stories, and I must say, I really am sorry that I can't officially take you guys to the part where Richard and Kori meet up again. I want you to know, however, that I will do my best to complete this story soon. This chapter of Reminiscent Memories was rewritten and republished on August 6, 2012.

I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed rewriting it. Also, please don't forget to review. :D Thanks for taking the time to read this, once again.

~ May Vulcan