Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans.

"Excuse me, Mr. Roth. There are guests at the front door. Would you like to greet them or should I ask Master Di--" a servant began, meekly adressing the formidable man.

"Show them to the living room, have them sit down, and offer them some refreshments. I will be there," Tristan answered coldly. He finished typing a document and shut down the computer.

Waiting in the living room were men unlike any Tristan had ever seen before. Taller and more muscular than even him. Tristan frowned, not a big fan of being intimidated, but turned it upside-down and sat on an armchair across from his guests.

"Good morning. How can I help you?"

The taller of the two, with a long mane of reddish-orangey hair, leaned forward. "We have a few questions to ask of you. My name is Galfore. I am the ruler of Tamaran." Royalty. That was never good.

"I apologize for not greeting you properly, your Majesty. My name is Tristan Roth, I am the owner of a large company in California. The owner of this mansion has stepped out for a few weeks, and I am taking over for a while."

Galfore did not looked pleased. "Very well. We are searching for a princess, who was lost many years ago. We have reason to believe she is here in Wayne Manor. Do you recognize her?" Galfore held up a picture of a ten-year-old-ish girl with black tresses and startlingly violet eyes. "We had no pictures of her whatsoever. This is her sister, who was taken captive and died during a war," Galfore explained, sadness crowding in his eyes. "She may not bear the same likeness, but they were almost twins until Komand'r's hair turned dark. The missing girl's name is Koriand'r, if that will help the search."

Tristan was rather uninterested, but tried not to show it. "I am so sorry. I have no record of any Koriand'r or Komand'r anywhere in this mansion. However, if you would like, you are more than welcome to stay and investigate. It would be an honor to have royalty among us," Tristan lied. Galfore sighed and glanced around at the lavish setting.

"Thank you...perhaps later. This was our one chance, we do not know..." Galfore mumbled to himself. The second man finally spoke.

"We will take our leave. Thank you."

"So..." Dick searched around for any bits of conversation that might lessen the awkwardness of the atmosphere. Rachel glanced up at him, waiting for him to speak. Away from her father, she was just as quiet. "You like to read?" He nearly slapped himself. Of course she liked to read, that was why she carried a book everywhere. Idiot.

"Yes."

The two were taking a lunch break, sitting outside Wayne Enterprises. Tristan had unofficially taken over the company. The vice presidents had questioned him, but he'd shown papers signed by Bruce and threatened to call the CEO, so they let it slide. Dick was shoved back into his place, and unable to do a thing about it. Rachel sat in a corner of the office, reading and occasionally jotting down notes.

"Oh...so where do you work?"

"I'm an author."

Yes! He'd gotten more than a monosyllable response! "Of what?"

"Dark poetry."

Dick shifted slightly. "That's...nice..."

"No, it's not. That's why it's dark poetry." The corners of her mouth had twisted upwards just a bit. "Thanks for trying."

"Yeah...uh, no problem." Another tense silence ensued. "Um..."

"I normally refrain from speaking excessively."

Dick chuckled. "I can see that."

There was definitely an upward twist to her smile, now. "I didn't want you to take it personally."

Occasionally, Dick attempted a few conversation starters, but mostly they ate in silence. He got up, finished, and came back, squinting at her small, spidery writing. "That's a poem?"

"Notes. Fragments. I'll turn them into poetry later."

"Must be fun, writing."

"It's not bad. I write novels, too. But I enjoy poetry more. The language and flow always makes the story better."

Dick could not believe he was actually offering insight on this topic. Poetry--not one of his hobbies. Dark poetry--waaay down there. "I bet this friend of mine would make a great poet. The way Kory talks is like--Kory!" He sprang up, cursing at himself for not remembering. Rachel looked on with a raised eyebrow. "Hold on, I have to make a call."

The phone rang, and Kory picked it up, trapping it between her ear and shoulder and resuming her dishwashing. "Hello?"

"Kory, I'm so sorry, I totally forgot you were supposed to come with me today," Dick ranted. Kory smiled, even though he couldn't see her, and tried not to think of reasons why he would have forgotten.

"It is fi--"

"I don't know, I've had a tough day, and this guy won't let me do a thing, he's taken over the entire flipping place! I can't believe Bruce doesn't trust me enough to let me run this for a few weeks, honestly, but that's no excuse, I should've remembered, but I don't even know if Tristan'll let--"

"Dick, it is perfectly understandable. Please do not stress. I will speak with you upon your arrival."

"Thanks, Kor. See you later."

"Good bye." She hung up, staring at the phone. "I lo--"

"Kory, dear, that plate is perfectly clean! Stop scrubbing, you'll scratch it! Of course you wouldn't know anything about this, you should be in medical school, not here. Wasted talent," May muttered, hobbling through the room.

"...So I guess it was just a furnace thump or something, but Kory and I were scared out of our minds," Dick said, smiling at the recollection.

Rachel smirked. "You talk about Kory quite a bit."

Dick shrugged, not liking where this was going. "She's my best friend. Nearly every memory I have has her in it, we've known each other for years." He pulled into the driveway of Wayne Manor.

"Is that all?" Rachel asked as they walked to the door.

He frowned, quickly smiling when Kory opened the door. "Hey, Kor."

"Hello, Dick, did you have a nice--" Dick was already gone, dragging Rachel by the wrist.

"What did you mean?" She just kept smirking. "Is it that obvious?"

"Blatantly. And, for future reference, women don't enjoy being interrupted when they're being nice by having the guy they're talking to walk away with another girl in tow." She sighed at Dick's blank look. "You're kind of clueless, you know that?"

"Hey, Kory!" cried a high-pitched, friendly voice. Gar Logan sidled up to her. "Whatcha doin'?"

She smiled at him. "Hello, Gar! I am merely cleaning appliances so that they may be sanitary while we are cooking." Gar frowned and tried to work that out in his head.

"Oh. Sounds pretty boring."

"It is not."

"Guess what, though? I beat Vic at Mega Monkeys 8! It was awesome! And he had to eat tofu!" Gar was bouncing around the kitchen as he talked, obviously the work of a sugar high. And he was twenty-three.

"Wait, I wish to guess...were you entitled to a bag of candy for your reward?" Kory asked.

"Yep!"

She giggled. "You can be so very childish sometimes. Video games..." Gar rolled his forest-green eyes.

"You don't understand the importance of video games, Kory! They're MANLY!"

Short and scrawny, with a habit of pranking people, Gar Logan was the farthest thing from manly. And he was peculiar in many ways, too. A former girlfriend of his, Tara Markov, had pointed out that he used his sense of smell more than his sight, except when it came to cleaning his room (and later, his house).

Gar sniffed the air suddenly, frowning. "It smells weird. Is there someone new here? Or is it a fire?"

Kory glanced around the kitchen worriedly. "I do not believe it is a fire. But there is a new family that is staying here for the time being. I will show you."

She led him out into the hallway and they peeked into the living room, where the girl was reading. "That is the daughter." Gar let out a low whistle, his eyes beginning to travel. Kory smacked him with a towel. "Dick has taken a liking to her. And she is the daughter of a very rich man."

"Aw, man! Dick already has you, why does he have to take all the hot girls?" Kory blushed and sneaked back into the kitchen. Gar followed. "I'm serious! Vets never get the girl! It's always the billionaires! Haven't you seen the movies?"

"Yes, Gar."

"Sheesh, Dick is one lucky guy." Kory glanced up at him. "To have you, I mean," he added hurriedly. Kory sighed. "Hey. So Dick's got himself a girlfriend, big deal! Doesn't mean he likes you any less."

"Of course not," Kory answered, trying and failing to inject some sort of happiness into her words. Needless to say, it didn't work.

Okay, I'm gonna speed up this story a lot. It'll only be like ten chapters, maybe less. I'm just getting kinda bored with it.