Thanks for the support everyone! I've cooled off and am happy again! Enjoy!

Arual-san

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As other students rushed through the halls of the academy for first period, stopped to chat like normal kids would, Dick had parked it in front of a certain window overlooking the track field. It was the diameter of a hula hoop – the only patch of brown over the field of perfectly maintained green grass. It was the exact place where the teleportation device had been activated. It had been the only thing that had tested positive under the scanning lens to have been exposed to a certain light, the only thing that proved Dick's suspicions thus far.

Taking a moment to glare it down did something in the way of convincing him that this wasn't all just a waste of time.

Periods passed, the popular kids droned on and on about themselves and how powerful their fathers were, and Dick just put it all on auto-pilot. It was all the same as the previous days but still he was ready to snap into attention the instant anything changed.

Nothing ever did so when the day finally ended Dick was much the same as Gar had been walking into their dorm for the first time. But only did he dare to loosen his posture out of the sight of all professors who had the right to inflict punishment even out of school hours.

He collapsed onto his bed like he hadn't slept for a year.

Even with a face still half swollen Gar burst into the room with such cheer that he didn't even mind shutting the door so as to not be caught mixing outside his social group with a popular kid.

"Robin! Robin!"

"Mmmmrr…" Dick mumbled through the pillow without the slightest care.

"But I've got good news," Gar persisted, yanking at his partner's feet when he wouldn't budge from the bed. "There's something we can do!"

A series of intelligible mumbling came from the pillow.

"What?" And Gar pulled his friend's scalp back to hear him.

"I'm…not playing…Stank-ball."

"No, no, it's not that." Gar let go and Dick's face fell straight back into the pillow. "I just found out we can go on a little field trip into the city for four hours. Won't it be great to get out of here for a little while, clear your head?"

"We're just going to have to come back," the boy growled, making little effort to move his head to a side.

"Yeah well I think the geeky kids I'm with are pretty innocent but I've been grilling them for information on your group. They had to have picked something up after getting beaten up so many times. Still probing around." Now that he'd told the basics Gar could get on to his plan. "An outing wouldn't just be for us either because my group told me they weren't taking this trip because it was "reserved" for your group."

"So? I can't take those guys anymore today."

"Sooo if your group is holding out on their secrets when you're around why don't we just blend into the crowd while we're out and spy on them?" Gar seemed awfully proud of himself and he was a sunbeam to show. "If I know you, I know you brought all your little gadgets."

Where Dick's energy seemed to have run dry before, he suddenly had the surge to roll over on his back and he looked at his friend as if he couldn't believe his ears. Had Beast Boy really just thought of a mission more promising than any of his?

00000000000000000000000000000000

"Don't lose them."

So focused was Dick on testing the frequency of his bugs over his earpiece that he didn't even glance away from them when he'd pressed the button to speak to the chauffer. Gar was on the opposite end of the back seat, Dick naturally not permitting him anywhere the tiny, delicate equipment, but that was fine with Gar, the boy still not having gotten over that he was sitting in a lap of luxury.

Gar still messed around with anything and everything in the fancy car with the mind he'd probably never be in one again once the mission was over. Only when he discovered a pack of cigars did Dick take notice and slap his fingers away.

The car came to a stop in the reserved parking of a fancy nightclub and even then they'd arrived only minutes after the popular kids. Regis, Chad and Bradley were dressed down from their blazers and accompanied by security guards.

Dick popped open the door but only peered out slightly to watch them before stepping out. The effect was ruined when Gar crawled over his back to see too but only the effect. Despite that it was in the heart of festive Gotham City nightlife it was to be no less undercover than their stroll through the library.

The chauffer's voice drifted back, British like Alfred. "Is this a single stop for the night or shall I keep the engine prepped for your return, young sirs?"

"Kill the engine," Dick answered as he watched the boys go through check in. "We'll keep you posted on the details, Wilson."

"Might you be sure that you don't require any bodyguards?" the old man asked of them for the second time that night. A phone lay right at the stick shift. "This city can really be quite…venturesome, especially to young heirs such as yourselves."

Gar looked back with a wink. "We can take care of ourselves."

Once they'd reached the doors of Café Brenda it could be told that there was no cover charge or guest list. Only big names could pass through those doors and Wayne plus guest was one of them. Clubs, even high-class bland ones like this one, were better than art exhibits and auctions any day and so they weren't the only other Birnamwood students present. They recognized some faces without being able to attach names.

Though the rich people were all in their orderly little clusters it still took some doing to get through and locate their targets. The three boys were how they'd been trained to be, conversing with every big name, making good relations before they took a table. The tables, the ones reserved for their academy, were easier to spot with tiny place cards bearing the school emblem.

One was taken, three others were not and one would remain empty when Dick and Gar had no desire to be identified.

Even in high society the waiters were trained to catch any underhandedness but Dick walked straight by one, used some slight of hand movements to stick a bug under each table like a wad of gum. He sat down next to Gar, plugged in his earpiece and waited. He continued to lay in wait as Gar ordered them drinks, a few minutes later the two Roy Rogers' were set down and Gar strained his face sucking his down through the mixing straw.

Getting nothing but absent-minded mumbles out of his partner, Gar swiped Dick's drink for himself when the ice started to melt.

"Here we go," Dick said eagerly when his targets finally sat down and Gar knew then that mumbles from him would diminish into silence.

When Dick didn't care either way when engaged in his work Gar felt free to order whatever he wanted off the menu for a very long and boring stakeout. Dick didn't care even when the tiny table turned into a mountain of dishes to slake Gar's picky palate.

"Avocado sushi?" Gar offered, sticking the plate under Dick's nose.

Dick didn't even blink and even Gar thought that was going a little far. No way would a few subtle actions from the popular kids across the room be the difference between making some headway and not.

"Oh come on, talking to your chair is more interesting than talking to you! Can't you multi-task?"

Dick blinked as if to confirm that he was still human. He reached for the plate blindly to shut his partner up when it was straining enough to hear with all the other noise to hear but as Dick did Gar looked on with surprise and then a sneaky look of delight.

Dick had pulled his sushi piece straight through the big gob of wasabi.

Every second that he watched the doomed piece get closer Gar's face got redder and puffier as he fought to keep it in. He almost didn't make it but when he saw Dick's pupils shrink to the size of pinheads he burst out laughing.

Unsuspecting, the poor boy cried out like his mouth was on fire. Gar snorted when that yell was worse than Robin getting hit in a fight; he was no help at all. Dick almost knocked the plates over looking for anything to help when it felt like the awful, too strong dosage was burning a hole through his tongue. He found an empty glass and had no second thought of downing a mouthful of ice. Gar laughed harder at his uptight leader's bulging chipmunk cheeks, laughed to the point of it hurting when Dick looked murderous in that state.

"Y-you…you lightweight!" Gar managed to get out between breathes. "Ha ha ha!"

Their noise didn't rise above any other of the clubbers but the wild commotion did and attracted the notice of their server.

"Is everything all right? Do you need anything?"

Dick couldn't speak with the ice in his cheeks but tried to anyway, tried to signal that he needed a glass of water. The server looked to Gar and Gar didn't quite feel it was over with yet after being ignored for over two hours.

"That…that's sign language for more wasabi!"

Dick's fingers clenched threateningly in the air as if itching to strange his partner in the middle of a crowded room where everyone could see but Gar didn't let him suffer for another second. He asked her to bring around some water just as quick as she could.

As soon as the server came into range Dick forgot all manners and swiped the water, chugged the whole thing in seconds.

"So how's the sleuthing going, detective?"

"Why…" Dick breathed harshly, trying for a handle on words with his abused tongue, "didn't you…say something?! That had more wasabi than rice!"

"How would that be funny?" Gar came back as if totally perplexed.

"I hate you."

"Oh boo hoo, you hurt my feelings. It was your fault for not paying attention."

But if Dick had been ignoring him before, he now ignored Gar with a vengeance so cold that Gar might well have never existed at all. A few young girls joined the table's party and proved a little harder to discern between six voices. Chuckles still rumbled in Gar's gut as he resigned himself to twirling around the little cocktail umbrellas for something to do.

It was a tiny bistro table hardly large enough for two but Gar looked round when a third chair was pulled round, a slender young brunette helping herself to a spot between the two.

"Hey," she said simply but enticingly. A smartly cut baby blue dress hugged her teenage frame well. "My name's Brooke. Mind if Rowan and I join you?" But her redhead friend didn't wait for an invitation either, pulling up another chair.

"H-hi," Gar offered lamely, letting them do as they pleased. It was a little too much being barred off from girls to the degree that they were, then having a couple as beautiful as they were dropping in unexpected and in such close vicinity.

"You poor dear, your face is all swelled up," Brooke simpered, running polished fingernails over his cheek in worry and tingles ran up the boy's spine at the touch. "Whatever happened to you?"

"Umm…a fight."

"Hey handsome," the girl Rowan said with an Irish accent on the other end. She scooted in closer to Dick, traced a nail over his shoulder. "Are you going to buy me a drink then? Think you can sneak in a little shine for me?"

"Mmm…" It wasn't even a real response to any question either way and the girl's face darkened in offense. Rowan packed up, whipped around to leave so quickly that her handbag banged into his side. He didn't notice.

"Come on," Dick mumbled, gripping his earpiece, like he wasn't aware as if he was thinking or speaking it, "almost there. Don't let me down now, almost there. Get to it."

Brooke couldn't help but notice and she noticed with some distaste. "What's the deal with your friend?"

"Oh…uh, him?" And Gar's mind raced for an excuse, came up with one instantly to get her attention back to him. "He's…listening to the football game over a wireless. Dick's a real big Knights fan, you wouldn't believe."

"Hmm…" But Brooke didn't seem overly concerned for long. She turned her full attention back to Gar and he almost trembled when she brushed back a stray lock of his hair. "You're a cute little thing, aren't you? I just had to come over and talk to you."

"Y-yeah? Wait, you don't mean little brother "cute" do you? Because I get that a lot and-"

"No," she purred.

"Sweet!" Gar scooted in closer, hardly feeling self conscious in front of Dick when his friend was practically a zombie anyway. He turned off the communicator in his pocket all so that one of the Titans couldn't call at the worst possible time and anxiously awaited her sweet voice.

"So you were in a big, bad fight were you um…what was your name?"

"Gar."

"Silly me, skipping right over proper introductions." She helped herself to a piece of vegetarian sushi from the many plates and Gar didn't protest. "So you're from Birnamwood Academy? I assume you're a freshman? You don't seem completely adjusted to the place."

"Wait, how did you know I was from the academy? I'm not wearing the uniform and I-"

Brooke giggled like he'd said the cutest thing. "Because I'm from Cherrywood…the girl's academy down in the valley? It's only a couple miles away from your hill, didn't you know?"

"No." Gar shot an annoyed look to his oblivious partner who watched the popular kids table like a hawk watches a meadow for a mouse to scurry into view. The other sex forbidden to him in that place had been so near and he'd never known.

"So what kinds of stuff do you like, Gar?"

"Yes!" After eavesdropping so long with nothing to show, Dick couldn't hold back a little excitement when finally he got something.

"Touchdown!' said Gar right after, rooting an arm upward to keep up appearances in front of the girl. Dick sent a confused look his way. "Uh…football?" he said, getting back to Brooke. "And Batman, he's pretty cool; I mean you'd have to have some interest in him if you're visiting Gotham."

"You're only visiting Gotham?"

"Yeah…" he hesitated in having to tell a lie to a girl that seemed interested. "My dad travels a lot with the work he does so we never stay in one place very long."

"Then I won't get to see you hardly at all?" She might've been coming on a little fast but Gar understood completely when girls like that were stuffed up in those academies for most of the year. He'd have never been able to survive it. "Will you be here next week at least?"

"I'm not sure." With the way things were going Gar really wasn't. They hadn't gotten any strong leads for the longest time but depending on what Dick had just overheard that might change.

"Then why don't you come over to my dorm room tonight?" she pressed. "Your friend can come too. I snuck in some DVD's we can watch on my laptop and my roommate's real quiet. It's just…I've been waiting for some time out all week and it's almost over already."

He was in the same boat as her but somehow had the mind that the severe punishments he'd receive from both academies might cripple him from returning to superhero life afterward.

Brooke seemed to translate most of what was playing in Gar's mind without him having to speak up. "It's okay, our chauffeur's easily bribed. After I go through check in you can sneak around back and I'll let you in. You can go back to your own school through the woods before the morning bells the next day."

"Well…"

'Please?"

"I…I can't," he needed to say and he saw her deflate. "I'm really reaching my threshold for punishment since I enrolled. If we were to get caught, if an inspector was to drop in…"

"They rarely do late at night," And Brooke was flat, seeing where this was going.

"It's just that I think a lot of cocky kids have probably thought that they were the one exception to the rule. I already have a black eye so I'm not feeling particularly lucky today."

The girl shook her head and huffed. With his claim her night was rapidly reaching its end. "Here I thought you were a tough guy getting into fight. I can find someone else easily, Gar, and I think you know that well. Someone that doesn't have a puffed up face!"

In that Brooke had been so much closer to success than her girlfriend Rowan her departure was more vengeful. She actually whacked his shoulder with her purse for making her go home alone. He was sorry to see her go but she only went a couple feet before stopping.

Gar looked her way and stiffened at the sight of new guests surely not on the list coming through the front doors: several armed women dressed in ritzy leotards and two five foot birds with bad tempers.

"Uh…Dick?" When Brooke didn't move at the sight of the birds poking into the faces of Gotham elite Gar reeled her back in to protect her.

"Not now. They're getting all excited on the other line."

"It's kind of important."

"Ladies and gentleman of Gotham," The voice was refined like all others in attendance but the short figure that huddled through the front door had a large, beaked nose and monocle that gave him away as an infamous criminal. "Forgive me please for the interruption."

Hearing the conceited voice of the Penguin again made Dick finally pull away from his work; he made a subtle move to his pocket for his communicator and pushed a silent alarm for the Bat.

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Eww, eww, eww, wasabi! Why don't I just chug a beaker of acid instead!? And nobody diss my favorite girl's name Rowan please. It's Irish, the biggest nationality percentage in my American Mutt blood, and I love it even when everyone around me thinks otherwise.

Arual-san