I don't own Teen Titans so stop asking.


Perfect (Not So Much): Kori and Dick are perfect but even they have problems.

Kori Anders and Dick Grayson were the perfect couple. Kori was an international student from a small country, tucked somewhere between eastern Europe and western Asia. Rumor had it she was some sort of princess and came to school in America to learn public relations but it was a topic she somehow managed to avoid talking about. Dick majored in business and was apparently some sort of heir to a major corporation headed by his guardian. His guardian was also an alumnus of Justice University and had donated so much money they named a building after him: Wayne Hall.

They were perfect individually and perfect together and sometimes it got on Rachel's nerves.

After the third time that month Kori stood her up at the library for an after lunch study session, Rachel grumbled to herself as she made her way back to the dorm (after studying by herself for an hour and a half, of course). This was just the way things were. Either Kori blew her off completely or she dragged Rachel along so they could both spend time with Dick. Rachel didn't mind his company, and he was probably the most levelheaded 18-year-old boy she knew, but that didn't mean Rachel enjoyed having him around whenever she hung out with Kori. Sometimes Rachel wanted to be with her best friend—not Dick's girlfriend.

Resolving to read out all her frustrations with her battered copy of Pride and Prejudice, Rachel stepped into her room and dropped all her study supplies at her desk.

Then jumped nearly three feet in the air when a loud sniffle came from the other bed.

When the danger of her heart jumping out of her chest passed, Rachel stared at the lump of blankets on Kori's bunk that looked a lot like her friend.

"Kori," Rachel said, trying to stave off the irritation in her voice, "what are you doing here? I called you, like, five times in the last hour. We were supposed to meet at the library, remember? You…Are you crying?"

At that, Kori flew off the bed so fast Rachel barely had time to blink before Kori nearly bowled her over and sobbed into her shoulder. Rachel's arms hung limply at her sides as she worried for safety of her spine. Kori was stronger than she looked.

Something kick started in Rachel's brain and she brought up her hands to gingerly pat Kori on the back.

"There, there," she said hesitantly. "It, um, it'll be all right."

(She hadn't gotten much better at the whole comforting thing.)

After about five minutes, Kori calmed down enough to follow Rachel to the bathroom (after Rachel staked it out to make sure no one was there). Kori washed the tears and dripping make-up off her face and Rachel was once again struck with how beautiful she was. Even with puffy red eyes and a splotchy complexion, wearing an oversized T-shirt and sports shorts (which both looked suspiciously like Dick's), Kori looked like she belonged on the cover of Vogue.

Rachel asked if she'd eaten anything today and when she said no, Rachel took her to the campus café, Young Justice, and bought her a pastry and a large caffeinated drink.

When it seemed like Kori had settled down enough to have a coherent conversation, Rachel asked, "Is everything okay?"

One final sniffle, and Kori sat straight in her chair with her head held high and in a steady, if a little nasally, voice said, "Dick and I have been having some troubles."

"Oh," Rachel said because she hadn't realized Kori and Dick ever had troubles past "There are only 24 hours in a day for us to spend together." It was comforting to know that even the perfect couple had a few chinks to work out. But she thought that was a cruel to think so she asked, "Want to talk about it?"

Kori did.

Rachel might not have had the whole comforting thing down, but she was born a good listener. Mostly because she had nothing helpful to say about people's troubles, but that was beside the point.

Especially since it seemed like Kori had an entire relationship's worth of feelings that she wanted to get off her chest.

She loved Dick—despite the relatively little time they'd spent together, she was completely sure of the way she felt. And though it was clear that Dick felt the same way, sometimes she was overwhelmed by the degrees of difference between their feelings. Sometimes when they were together, it was like he was somewhere far away and whenever she asked he would just tell her it was nothing for her to worry about. It wasn't in her nature to push too hard and it wasn't in his nature to volunteer personal information and so they'd been stuck in a sort of limbo, with him ignoring her obvious curiosity and her pretending she wasn't curious. Things came to a head this morning, when she'd unintentionally pushed too far. There'd been yelling on both sides, someone stormed out, and at least two doors slammed.

By the time she finished, Kori was admirably keeping herself from falling off the brink of tears and Rachel felt like a horrible friend. Kori had been in pain this whole time and here was Rachel, bitter about being the third wheel.

"Maybe you should try telling him how you feel," Rachel said, since it seemed like a good time to say something. She nearly flinched when Kori turned bright green hopeful eyes on her, like anything else that came out of her mouth would solve all her problems. No pressure though, Rachel thought. "Um. Maybe, instead of making it about him and what he doesn't want to tell you, you should try talking to him about how you feel when he locks you out like that. If he knows it's hurting you, he'll probably work on not doing that."

"Do you truly believe so?" Kori said.

"If he doesn't then I'll be the one talking to him."

Kori beamed and reached over to put her hand over Rachel's. "Thank you, Rachel. You are a true friend."

Rachel wasn't sure she deserved the warmth in Kori's eyes. She doubted Kori was as cheered up as she appeared to be. There was something to the smile plastered on Kori's face that, while sincere, still seemed a little forced. Rachel wanted to say something else, something to let her know that everything was going to work out but the words caught in her throat—Kori wasn't the kind of person that appreciated hollow assurances. But Rachel wanted to do more than just listen, be logical, and buy food. She wanted to make sure that Kori was completely fine, not just marginally better, but she supposed that wasn't what Kori wanted. Maybe some people didn't need to be cheered up when they felt bad. They just needed a step up to fix their own problems.

"Thanks," Rachel said, feeling mildly awkward. She patted Kori's hand with her other one. "You too."

Kori kept grinning without saying a word, all her attention trained on Rachel, who felt her face slowly heating up.

"Okay," she said, sliding her hand out from under Kori's. "That's enough."

Then, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, Gar Logan appeared out of nowhere and fell into an empty chair, dropping his backpack on the ground and a large cup of coffee on the table, with two straws hanging from his mouth as he clapped his hands together and said, "Look! I'm a walrus!"

Rachel stared at him, caught somewhere between confusion and anger, and was about to settle on anger when Kori burst out laughing. Gar started making barking noises as he flopped his hands around, making Kori laugh even harder. When Kori laughed so hard she gripped her stomach and wiped tears from her eyes, Rachel figured she could forgive Gar for his idiocy just this once. Clearly, he'd set out to make Kori smile and he'd gotten the job done.

After about five minutes of this chaos, Gar pulled the straws out of his mouth and threw them on the table. He grinned and sipped his drink like nothing happened. "So," he said. "What's up?"

"Should you be drinking that much caffeine?" Rachel asked because she didn't want to answer and she was pretty sure he shouldn't.

He shushed her and put a finger to her mouth, which she graciously slapped away instead of breaking.

"Just don't tell Dick," Gar said happily. "He's got me on a tight caffeine leash." He leaned back in his chair and downed the rest of the coffee then slammed it on the table with a content sigh.

"It's not like you need it," Rachel said. "Playing video games all day doesn't require you to be that alert."

"You've never played with Wally," he replied. "And for your information, I was actually going to the library. To study. 'Cause I'm a good student."

She raised an eyebrow.

"And Vic was singing with his door open again and I had to get out of there before he completely ruined 'Uptown Funk' for me."

Kori giggled.

"Do you even know where the library is?" Rachel asked him.

"Course I do!" He waved his hand vaguely in the opposite direction of where the library was. "It's over, you know, there. By that one building. With the windows…and the trees. Forget about that. When do you babysit next? I got this new joke Melvin's gonna love."

"Okay, quit calling me while I'm working so you can talk to someone with the same mental age as you," Rachel said, scowling. "It's bad enough I have to deal with you and your stupid jokes here."

"Hey!" Gar said, affronted. "I don't tell stupid jokes!"

She rolled her eyes. "And stop stealing my phone and stop teaching Melvin how to steal my phone. No more trading weird pictures with me as the go-between."

"How else are we supposed to do it? She's not old enough for her own phone."

Kori laughed and Rachel glared at her. "Don't encourage him."

Kori nodded but there was something to her smile—a different something than the sad one from earlier—that made Rachel frown.

"What?" she said.

Kori glanced between the two of them before she said, "I heard something the other day concerning your relationship. You are closer than I thought."

Rachel's frown deepened. "Relationship? Close? With Gar? What are you talking about?"

By the realization that dawned on Gar's face, it seemed like he knew exactly what she was talking about. He made a cutting motion at his neck to tell Kori to stop but it was too late.

"What is she talking about?" Rachel asked him, crossing her arms and raising one eyebrow.

He avoided her gaze. "Uuuummm…?"

"The boy that bothered you not long ago," Kori said. "He has been telling people that he 'kicked the ass' of your boyfriend."

"My—who?" She looked at Gar and whatever expression was on her face was enough to make him freeze in terror. Good.

He laughed uncomfortably, scratching the back of his head. "Heh. Um. That is a funny story, actually, and I'd love to tell it one day but right now I gotta—there's—see ya!"

Then he took off running.

Kori looked genuinely surprised by their reactions. "I am sorry. Did I say something wrong?"

"Don't worry," Rachel said icily, glaring at Gar's retreating back. "I'm just going to kill him later."


The fifth floor bathroom was almost always blissfully empty Saturday mornings and Rachel always took full advantage of the privacy and lazily went through her morning routine. It almost reminded her of the old days when she had an entire bathroom to herself. This Saturday, however, as she closed the door to her room, she glanced up at the exact same time Gar glanced up from closing the door to his room. The only thing that told her that he'd just rolled out of bed was his lack of pants. His hair was messy, but it was always messy, and a bright smiled spread across his face when he saw her, as happy as always despite it being morning.

He greeted her cheerily, if a little groggily. She returned it absently, eyes glued to his boxers. She didn't mean to stare but really, who even owns purple boxers with zebra stripes?

"Bathroom?" he guessed, pointing down the hall.

She nodded. "Morning breath."

He grinned. "We have so much in common."

She glowered at him. "I still haven't forgiven you." She turned away from him towards the bathroom.

He caught up to her easily. "So where's Kori? Saturday mornings she usually has to drag you out of bed away from some stupid book that kept you up the night before."

She scowled at him. "I don't read stupid books."

He smiled and shrugged.

"Where's your alarm?" she said. "You usually can't get out of bed without Dick to nag you out because you're just plain lazy."

He frowned thoughtfully at that. "I don't know. I woke up and he was gone."

"Same here."

At that moment they reached the bathroom. Gar opened the door partway before they both paused. The sound of a shower going sounded through the otherwise empty room, accompanied by a few squeaks of wet skin on wet tile and an airy giggle.

Without a word, Gar closed the door quietly and they both took a step back.

They found their missing roommates.

And, apparently, they weren't fighting anymore.

Rachel wondered if her face was as pink as Gar's right now.

He cleared his throat then said, "You know. I read somewhere that brushing your teeth half an hour after breakfast is good too."

"Reading? You? That sounds reliable."

He gave her a quick glare. "Breakfast?"

She opened her mouth to refuse when low breathy moan echoed from the bathroom.

Face definitely flaming now, she said, "Only if you put on pants."

"You take the fun out of everything."


A/N: This ended up very differently from how it started but this way works better. It's a short one but I hope you liked it. I like the idea that Rachel and Gar always end up being the third wheels. Oh, and other characters! (Well, character.) Kori's not always this weepy, I swear, but you know. Sometimes you just got to let it out and I figure she's the kind of person that would let it all out. By the way, I bumped up the rating because college kids swear. (Young Justice cameo! Whoo!)

Also, I'm going to make it through this whole fic without giving the kids a last name because if there's one thing I hate more than coming up with first names, it's coming up with last names, so there.

Um...yeah. That's it. See you next time!