I think I'm addicted to this story; I love it so much.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 10

"Ow."

"Where does it hurt?" she asked again, her hands probing his chest carefully.

Suddenly, he tensed up again and grabbed her hand to stop her from poking him. "Ow!" he said pointedly, glaring at her.

Raven sighed, then said, "Just be glad these two showed up when they did, Richard, or you would have been toast."

He groaned, "I could have handled it."

"But you didn't," she pointed out gently, trying to help him to his feet.

He shrugged her hand off his shoulder angrily, muttering, "I can do it." He struggled to his feet, but let out an involuntary gasp of pain and fell forward once more. She caught him and helped him over to a chair.

"You fractured a few ribs, but the nearest medical station should be able to fix that up no problem," she said.

"Didn't we bring medical supplies?" he asked crossly.

"Yes, but nothing to treat this sort of thing," she countered.

"I'll manage."

"No, you won't! You're not some sort of metahuman hero, Richard Grayson, so get that through your head! You're mortal, not invincible, and you have to admit when you're hurt!"

He sighed, and silence prevailed between the two of them for what seemed like an eternity. He seemed to be searching for a distraction, something to keep himself busy with instead of thinking about his injury. Suddenly, he asked, "That's Koriand'r, isn't it?"

She visibly jumped; she had forgotten all about the Tamaranean princess in her worry. Wow. Was Richard Grayson really this important to her? She needed to check her emotions more. "Yeah, she's the one that was in the cell."

"I thought so," he chuckled, struggling to rise to greet the girl. Ensign Logan quickly rushed over to the security officer's side and helped him over to where Koriand'r sat, her knees tucked up underneath her chin.

"Richard Grayson," he said, sticking out his hand in a gesture of friendship.

The Tamaranean princess just stared at the outstretched hand, then raised an eyebrow. She rose slowly, her eyes never leaving his face even as Ensign Logan stepped away to let Richard stand on his own. Without warning, she stepped forward and grabbed the surprised lieutenant by the scruff of the neck.

Without thinking, Raven growled, "What does she think she's doing?"

Ignoring the grunt from Richard, Koriand'r pulled him close for a kiss. Raven felt her eyes widen despite herself and...no, it wasn't. It couldn't be because she didn't get jealous...but it was, wasn't it? Needless to say, Commander Raven was more than relieved when they finally pulled apart.

"Why did you rescue me?" Koriand'r demanded, suddenly speaking English.

"To be nice," Richard spluttered, still held up by the scruff of his neck.

Raven stepped forward carefully. "We're on a mission, Princess. The Tamaranean government thinks that we're responsible for your kidnapping, so we were sent to come and save you. Did you get a good look at your kidnapper?" She ignored the scowl from Richard; as far as she was concerned, they were not just being nice, and she would not let Koriand'r continue to think so. Because if the princess thought that they were just being nice, she would have reason to give Richard another kiss, and, for some reason she couldn't yet explain, she didn't want that to happen.

Koriand'r raised an eyebrow, looking from Raven to Richard before saying, "I only saw one, and he looked like this boy, but with black eyes...and he was taller, I believe. I did not see much, though."

"You didn't see anybody else?"

Koriand'r shook her head, starting to look annoyed. "I saw almost nothing, simply the black-haired boy whose name I do not even know," she said, then looked from one face to another. "You seem to know me, but I do not know who any of you are. And it seems that I must congratulate you."

Cyborg stepped forward, a wide grin on his face. "My name is Commander Victor Stone, but you can just call me Cyborg like everyone else does," he said.

"And I'm Ensign Logan, or Beast Boy. Just call me Beast Boy, because I don't like the name Garfield."

Raven forced a small smile onto her face as she added, "I am Commander Raven. I'm in charge of this rescue mission."

Koriand'r smiled at each in turn, then turned to Richard, who had finally managed to wriggle out of her grasp. "And you are...?"

He fixed her with a huge grin and tried sticking his hand out again. "Lieutenant Richard Grayson, at your service," he said.

She did not take the hand, but stared at it as she asked, "The ones called Cyborg and Beast Boy have changed their names. Why have you not done so as well, Commander Raven and Lieutenant Grayson?"

Richard managed a small chuckle. "First of all," he explained kindly, "they didn't change their names, it's just something we call them in place of their real names to shorten it. A nickname. And I have one too. You can call me Robin, and, if she'll let you, you can just call Commander Raven...Raven."

"I do not think she would like that," Koriand'r observed, noting Raven's cool expression.

"Glad you noticed," she replied, hardly managing to keep her tone even. She did not like this princess, and the sooner she got rid of her, the better. Why she wanted to get rid of this princess so badly was still a mystery to her, but all she knew was that she wanted her gone. But she couldn't be jealous, could she?

Koriand'r glanced from Raven to Richard once more, a frown forming on her face. "I apologize. I did not realize that the two of you were so close. Had I known beforehand that a kiss would bring such contention, I would have chosen someone else. Tell me, are you two betrothed?"

Wipe that smirk off your face. "No, we're not. We're just friends."

"Oh," Koriand'r said, a smile plastered onto her face, "then you have no reason to be jealous, as I assumed you to be. Please forgive me for my incorrect presumption."

"Don't mention it," she replied, this time straining harder than ever to keep the growl out of her voice.

Thankfully, Richard stepped in to interrupt their battle of words. "Yeah, Raven's sometimes testy when you first meet her. That's no reason to get off on the wrong foot though, is it?" he asked, pointedly staring at her.

Oh, so you can't see that she's just as rude as I'm being? What are you, blind? Sure, she's pretty, Richard, but she's a spoiled, pampered, palace brat! Hello! But she sighed, "You're right. My apologies, princess, I had no right to be angry with you for...whatever you were doing."

"If it will ease your mind, you may wish to know that the kiss that has gotten you so worked up was simply my people's way of learning languages. Why do you think that I can now speak with you when I could not before?"

Ensign Logan's ears perked up. "Yeah, I remember that now! Robin was talking about that in his lecture!"

Richard groaned, "It figures you'd remember something like that and nothing else of what I said."

"Selective hearing, I'd call it," Cyborg grinned.

Koriand'r looked over at Richard, suddenly smiling broadly. I really don't like this girl, Raven thought despite herself as she heard the princess say, "You have studied Tamaran?"

He grinned back. "It helps to know everything about your mission. I figured we'd be running into some Tamaraneans before we were done, so I thought it would be a good idea to brush up on Tamaranean culture."

She nodded, looking thoughtful. "So that is why you were not as surprised as your teammates were, although you were still somewhat shocked."

"I hate to break up this lovely conversation," Raven interrupted, though she really had meant to break it up, "but in case you've forgotten, we still need a way out of this cave."

"I could probably trace our steps back until we figure it out," Cyborg suggested.

"Or I could change into a hound dog and smell our way out," Ensign Logan offered.

"Do both," Richard said, "and maybe that will increase our time. We've got to get Koriand'r back home before we run into any more...complications."

There it was again. She sensed that familiar dread running through his veins, that thing that was very close to fear. Or anticipation, maybe. "Do you know something the rest of us should know about, Lieutenant?" she asked.

He glared at her. "Just that I've got a feeling it won't be long before they come back- and more of them this time."

Somehow, that was enough for her. She trusted Richard Grayson's feelings; she had come to learn that there was good reasoning behind most of them.

"Hey, Raven, are you okay?" he asked. After all, the commander had been acting strange ever since the princess had arrived. And he felt like it was his job to make sure she was okay.

"I'm fine, Lieutenant," she snapped.

He raised an eyebrow. "I thought we were on a first name basis unless you were mad at me," he said.

"I'm not mad."

"Maybe you're not mad specifically at me, but you're mad."

"And since when were you an empath?"

"Since just now. You passed on your abilities to me, remember? Seriously, Raven, you've been acting weird ever since..."

"Ever since the kiss? Well, yeah, Richard. Of course I'm upset about that! She doesn't even have feelings for you, you know that? She was just trying to communicate with us, okay?"

"I know that! Are you forgetting that I sat there and researched-"

"Do you remember any of that research?" she snapped.

"What do you mean?"

"If you really researched, you'd remember that the kiss meant nothing. Don't try and hide it, Richard, you've got a crush on that princess!"

"Why, because I thought she was pretty? Well, I think Blackfire's pretty too, does that mean I'm going to run off with her? And if I told you that you were pretty, would you assume that I wanted to go out with you? In case you haven't noticed, I make it a point to keep emotion out of my work!"

For some reason, this seemed to hit her pretty hard. She refused to talk to him the rest of the way out of the cave, and he didn't know what he had said.