CHAPTER 10: Behind closed doors.

His face scrunched up as he wiped his nose unforgivingly on his sleeve. A shiver ran through his body. He was about to drop onto the floor when there was a rap on the door.

Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock!

Dragging his feet listlessly, he went and opened the door with anything but enthusiasm.

An effervescent Kori Anders leaned against the open doorframe, idly checking her nails.

"Really?" Kori asked incredulously, her face highly amused.

Dick gave a weak shrug in reply, unsure of what she was on about. His eyelids drooped as Kori rolled her eyes and barged into his apartment as if she owned the place, pushing Dick aside gently. She halted after few steps. She gazed down to see her bare feet amidst a disorderly sea of scattered leather shoes.

Her eyes continued to roam the shabby room. Its floor overloaded with a collection of stacked, upturned and unopened boxes. The walls remained plain with its dull, cut-rate wallpaper. There were no chairs, neither tables nor any other kind of furniture but a little box of a television that sat sadly on a stool in the corner. It's black empty screen reflected ajar cupboard doors, which revealed a neat hanging array of shirts, jackets and pants. With a turn of her face and a slight dread from the pit of her stomach, she peeked past the bathroom door. She let out a breath of relief, that was covered partially by a smidge of amazement, when she saw how impeccably clean the bathroom and sink was. Turning back ahead, her eyes caught onto an assembled heap of rags, towels and blankets on a king-sized mattress and a couple of strewn crumpled pillows. This uncombed clutter posed as the center of the place, which would otherwise denote as a pigsty.

She whizzed her body back to him and once again asked, "Really?"

He shrugged once more.

As she took a deep breath and her nose picked up a foul scent of rotting food. Her face screwed up with displeasure. "This cannot do." She muttered under her breath as she made her way out the door. On the way, she grabbed Dick by the collar of his bathrobe and pulled him out of his room, and into hers.

Click.

Click.

Both doors clicked softly to a close. Now both Kori and Dick were behind closed doors, or more accurately, the same closed door.

And you can never expect what opportunities may open behind closed doors.

Dick's watery eyes widened at the sight of the room before him. Kori pulled him away from his depressing dump of a room and into her own, more pleasant room, which was tremendously far from what would be called a dump.

His toes curled up, as his eyes relaxed on the pearly white painted walls, clenching the soft velvety carpet beneath his feet. He took slow strides, passing the doorway, into the larger living space. The same dark purple carpet stretched to the rest of the apartment, and Dick couldn't help but let out a low hushed whistle as his eyes landed on the classy glass coffee table, the beanbag and the large settee; all of which sat promptly in front of the enormous flat screen tv that was suspended on the wall.

He found himself sitting back on the classy leather couch. He couldn't believe anything could be this comfortable. This entire place felt so cozy, so comfy, so much like home. He rested his heavy head on the backrest and closed his puffy eyelids. But after a few seconds, his eyes shot open, up to the chandelier lighting above him. Turning his head left then right, he couldn't help but notice how it matched nicely with the other statues and decorative ornaments in the room. He let out a cough.

"Here."

He seemed startled to see her. Heck, this is her apartment.

"What's this? He asked, his voice was high-pitched and squeaky. He tried clearing his throat but it didn't really do any good.

"Hot tea with a slice of lemon and some aspirin." Kori placed the mug and tablet on the table in front of him.

"What for?" He cleared his throat again, the phlegm and dryness clearly audible.

"You're sick, if you didn't notice." She plainly replied.

He stubbornly denied, "No, I'm not". His soggy red nose turned away from her.

"Then can you please explain to me what were those horrendous noises coming from your room the entire morning." She watched the side of his pale face as he sniffled. A frown made its way onto his very handsome face.

"I have a mouse problem." He coughed out.

"Reeeeaaalllly….?" She dragged the syllables as long as they could go. Her face shaped in full disbelief. This boy is just full of it...She thought to herself, inwardly chuckling.

"Yeah," He turned back to her. "You should see the size of them." He held up his hands in front of his face, far apart from each other so that they were about the size of a puppy. Between his hands, his dull, cloudy blue eyes saw straight into a pair of bright green, that sparkled in amusement. The small smile on her tanned face gleamed contentedly in the morning sun coming in from the windows.

"Did these rodents have the flu for any reason?" Those lips uttered.

"Whu-wha-ah-CHOO!" He sneezed into the sleeve of his bathrobe and muttered a muffled "No….."

"Hmmmmmm…." her eyebrows cocked up at him accusingly.

"I don't have the flu. I'm as healthy as ah-ahk-ah….. horse…"

"A horse with the flu."

With a grunt, he asked, "Why am I here again?"

"Cause you're sick." She answered.

"No, I'm not." He insisted.

She let out a sigh before saying, "Shut up and just let me take care of you." She grabbed a tissue from the box on the table and set it front of his face.

From behind the tissue, he could be heard arguing, "I can take care of myself back in my own apartment."

"Not from what I saw."

He waved her had away and called over his shoulder, "But-"

"No buts, she stopped him. "You have no furniture."

Here we go with the fingers, again.,… He thought.

"Who needs furniture?" He quarreled over his arms.

"No bed?" Her voice cool and to the point.

"I have a mattress," He claimed.

"No food." She pointed out.

"There's food." He debated.

"No edible food." She emphasised.

He reluctantly admitted, "You have a point there."

"It's a filthy mess." She listed off.

"I don't have time to clean!" He cried.

"You're still in you're bathrobe." She stated.

"I don't see what's wrong with this." He looked down to his bathrobe, grumbling.

"It's not hygienic. Have you washed it?" She poked.

"Well.. "

"How long have you been wearing it?"

"The whole night..?" He mention sheepishly.

"That's why it needs to come off."

"What?"

"It's dirty," She directed to the sleeve which he had earlier sneezed in. "It's stained," her finger pointed to the smear of blue toothpaste on it, "it's been slept it and you need to recover. Frankly, I'm fed up of hearing your "CHOO" every few minutes. It's driving me insane."

He stared blankly at her, not moving; not removing his bathrobe as Kori saw it.

"Take it off." She nodded calmly to him.

"What if I don't?" He snarled back.

"It won't do you any good and you won't recover," her hand reached out to him.

"No!" He turned away from her; hands pulled the collar around him more tightly.

"Come on, stop being a brat." She leaned over him, stretching her fingers.

"Get away." He called over his shoulder.

"You're sick and that bathrobe is far from hygienic."

He didn't reply, instead he slid further away from her on the couch.

She slid closer then got her knees onto the couch.

He edged further.

She crawled closer.

"I'm fine. Really." He ensured. Curled up in a ball now, he was at the armrest of the chair. Facing away from her.

"No, you're not. Just take it off." She was next to him now and she stretched her arms around him, reaching for the tie-strings.

"No!" He twisted around to get her off him.

He was putting quite a struggle, so she moved one of her knees aside in order to balance herself. She wasn't going to let this go so easily. She couldn't sit by the sidelines as the people around her were suffering some sickness. Whenever she heard or saw one, her natural caregiver instinct came over. He needed to get better and she was going to get him there by the skin of her teeth.

Every time she reached out, he would grab a hold of her hands. He would twist and turn at every movement she made; slowly, he started sinking lower into the chair.

He grabbed one of her hands catching it just above his waist and pinned it to the backrest of the chair. She put her other hand on the armrest next to where his head had slumped to.

"Let me wear the bathrobe." He begged.

"Why?! You'll never get better that way." Quick as lightning, her hand on the armrest leaped to his waist.

He was about to grab it but he was too slow and she pulled on the string.

The soft towel-like coat split open, revealing a very naked chest that was rising and dropping in heavy, shallow breaths. Her eyes couldn't help as they dropped down to his rippling abdominal muscles that were tightened under her gaze. Her pupils ran over every curve and bump, every shining part of exposed lean flesh. The edges of her lips jumped into a very happy smirk. She did not stop. Her green orbs traced the very defined pelvic line that ran from the sides of his frame into low cut dark blue elastic that stopped at just the right, perhaps wrong, place.

"Oh. So, that's why." She murmured softly as Dick continued breathed heavily under her. Her hand gripped the side of the cushion tightly. Her fingers digging into the rich leather. He sniffled slightly as he waited. Waited for her to do something. To say something or to at least get off of him.

But Kori did not do anything. She did not say anything. She did not move from her very…compromising position. Her knees stayed widely positioned by the side of his hips while her bum sat comfortably on his thighs. Her left hand was gripping the edge of the cushion as well as the end of his robe's tie string.

"Um…"He tried clearing his throat. "Kori?"

"Yes?" She replied ever coolly and sweetly, her eyes never leaving his body.

"Are you going to get off me?"

"Huh?" She looked up from her trance, realizing the position they were in.

"Depends," her lips curled into a dangerous smirk."Are you going to let go of my hand?"

He turned his watery blue to above his head. His hand was clasping onto hers, sticking it to the backrest. He had not grabbed her wrist, during the struggle he had instead grabbed onto the hand itself and his fingers were hugging her palm to the backrest.

"Oh, yeah. Ahem."

He released her hand.

And after one last scan and a flash of a quick smirk, Kori removed herself off him stepping few paces away from the couch.

She brushed her oversized off shoulder top and her shorts. She kept her eyes away, hands on her back, waiting for Dick to compose himself. He did more than that for she heard soft thuds of footsteps. There was clearing of a very congested throat. Then a creak of an opening door. She called to him just before he put his foot out.

Not turning back but instead, rolling playfully on her feet, she said, "So…briefs, huh?"

He slammed the door on his way out.

Oh yay! I like how this turned out. Felt really unsure about writing this, I was trying so hard to capture the scene and emotion, but I just wrote and it turned out fine. Did anyone else get a kind of Beast Boy/Raven kind feel? I dunno, I did. Hmm.. Gives me an idea... You'll just wait and see! :p

All of you should listen to Swedish House Mafia. All of you. I mean it.

I know I promised a lot of deep meaningful revelation, but I think I'll save it for the next chap this chap was just too amusingly playful to intertwine such deep secrets. HEHE. Check out my profile for a link to see the link to my author's cut on this story! :D

The next chap is going to be a challenge so please have patience! OHOHOH, There's a sequel to my oneshot of BB/Rae! :) It's called "Wild Card."