A/N: This chapter has an element of true-life. On Friday a classmate of mine was killed by a drunk driver. I didn't know her that well personally, but it still hit me, all of my friends, my sister, and everyone else I know very harshly. This chapter is dedicated to her.

Disclaimer: Teen Titans are not mine, but I sure wish Kid Flash were (That kid is sexxxxxxxay).

IMPORTANT A/N (PLEASE READ!): I have changed this chapter slightly, but the changes I have made are important to the story.

TT2

"I'll go talk to her," Sara stated, brushing back locks of her thick blonde hair. Sara started forward, but Taku stopped her abruptly.

"No, I'll go after her," Taku told them, already on his way out the door. "I think I'm the one that needs to talk to her at the moment." He left the room and began walking, his mind racing for any possibility to explain this very weird occurrence. What was wrong with Clara?

Taku walked silently through the hallway that held all of their bedrooms. He came upon the one that read 'CLARA' in big, bold letters and knocked hesitantly upon it. "Clara, are you in there?" he asked.

"Go away!" she shouted. "I don't want to talk about it!"

"Are you sure?" Taku asked, voice softening, hearing the pain lacing hers. Clara may not be the friendliest person he ever met, but deep down there was a nice girl in that body of hers. He just needed to find it.

"Positive. Go away!" she retorted, her voice slightly muffled.

Taku sighed. "I didn't want to do this." He reached for the keypad next to her door and punched in the access code. It wouldn't slide open, which meant she had engaged the keypad override. The door would only open form the inside. "I didn't want to do this either."

Taku sighed in defeat and sunk, as if he had melted, to the floor. His flattened body slipped under the crack of her door and stretched upward, composing into his form once again.

"Clara?" he asked of the sobbing form creating a lump in the middle of her bed.

"I thought I told you to go away!" her muffled voice screamed as she stuffed her face farther into her pillow. "Now go before I make you!"

"Clara, I'm worried about you. Is that so terrible that you have to push me away? I want to make sure you're alright," he told her softly, sitting next to her petite form and laying a delicate hand on her back.

She made no response, but only sobbed harder. "I care, Clara. The things I said to you the other day might not exactly make it seem so, but I really do care. I'm sorry you can't see that, or you just don't want to acknowledge it."

Clara's face slowly peeked up, her eyeliner and mascara both smeared down her cheeks, tears dripping down her face, and blotches on her forehead. "It's not fair, y'know?" she cried, a fresh wave of sobs surfacing in her throat. "It's not fair." The Gothic girl turned around and sat up, so she was sitting next to him facing the other way. She rested her head on his shoulder and began to weep once more.

"What's not fair?" he asked softly, his arm coming up to wrap around the side of her waist. He patted her back comfortingly.

"It's not fair how you look so much like him, and you act so much like him, and yet…I can't get it through my mind that you're not him. I can't kiss you and hold him like I did to him. I can't laugh for hours on end from something you said. It's not FAIR!" Clara began crying harder still, beating upon Taku's shoulders with tremendous force.

"Who's 'him'?" he asked softly. "Is that Sean?" That was the name Clara had accidentally called him.

"Yes," Clara responded, pulling her head up and sniffing. She looked him in the eye and wiped away her tears. "I guess it would make the most sense if I started from the beginning."

Clara pulled back and squeezed her knees to her chest, sniffing every few moments. "It all started when I was eight. I lived in a town just south of Gotham called Fairfield. Sara and I had both let our powers slip in the town we had previously lived in, and we had to flee before anyone had asked questions. The thing was, neither of us knew we could do magic until after we moved and our parents told us. They said they had been waiting until we were mature enough, and felt that since we were wondering what had happened, we had a right to know what was going on."

Taku nodded in understanding. "It must've been hard moving away from everything you had lived with."

"It was," she told him sadly. "But then I started school there. Naturally, my sister was a social butterfly. She had plenty of friends by our third week there. She was really my only friend. No one accepted me, and none of her friends liked me. While she had sleepovers and went to birthday parties, I would sit in my room reading my spell books and brewing up potions, listening to them talk about boys with cooties while listening to N'Sync."

Taku's eyes softened and he rested his hand on the arm that was wrapped around her calves. "But then, one day, when I was sitting alone at a lunch table because one of her friends had taken my seat at her lunch table, a guy came up to my table and sat next to me. He smiled sweetly and introduced himself as Sean Montgomery. He said he saw me sitting alone and felt like coming over and talking to me."

Clara sighed and rested her face in her arms, sniveling. "It's hard to talk about him, isn't it?" Taku asked, as she lifted her head and watched him intently. Slowly, she nodded, wiping away her tears.

"Well, to continue, we soon became very close friends. He was my only friend at that school, besides my sister. But, as the years rolled on, and as I grew into seventh grade, I became more popular, and I began to acquire new friends. Of course, no one could hold a candle to the relationship I had with Sean. The beginning of freshman year, we both finally confessed to having feelings a bit more than friendly towards each other. I think I was the happiest I had ever been when we were together." Clara heaved another sigh. "We stayed together throughout most of the school year. February fourteenth, Valentine's day, of our freshman year, something…happened."

Taku pulled his knees up and rested his forearms upon them, letting her knee rest against his. "What happened? Like…an accident or something?"

"It was an accident," she told him. "His brother Dante had gotten his license two months prior, and they decided to go out for some Wendy's on a Saturday night. A drunk driver hit them on the passenger side of the car. Dante got off with a broken leg, a broken nose, and two broken fingers. Sean was left badly, badly injured, on the brink of death. The minute Sean was allowed to see anyone, I was in his room, having his mom lie that I was his sister. She knew what a strong bond we had, and told me she couldn't bear to see me torn in pieces while his family got to visit him. So, the second I saw him, I began kissing him and hugging him and telling him he'd be ok." Clara looked away. "Either way, I started looking up spells and potions I could use to keep him alive. I was going to brew an endless life potion, but that would be more of a curse than a gift. Instead, I tried brewing up a very strong healing potion, made from the most intricate of ingredients. When it was merely seconds from being finished, I got a call from his mother that he had just died."

Clara closed her eyes and willed away unshed tears, but they streamed down her rosy red cheeks either way. "It wasn't fair," she wailed, throwing her arms around Taku and nuzzling her head into his shoulder. "I could've saved him and he died." Clara pulled away and looked up at him through thick black lashes. "A month later, I found a passage in one of my potion books that stated the soul lives in the body for twenty-four hours after someone dies, and then it is reincarnated. I found the recipe for a potion that could've restored his soul in his body and kept him alive while I gave him the other potion to heal him, but it was too late. I could've saved him, but…somehow I missed that little section."

"It hurts, doesn't it?" he asked softly, letting her cry into his shoulder again. "Losing someone. I lost mywhole family in a house fire when I was three.Losing someone you love is always the hardest thing to get through. You always feel so responsible for it."

"He was the only person I had ever loved," she told him off-handedly. "Well-the only person I had ever romantically loved."

"So…how did this lead up to what happened today in the living room?" Taku asked. "I mean-you just screamed at me, but you used his name. Is there something I should know?"

"Well, Sean could have been your twin," she told him. Clara pulled away, and slipped her frail form off of her bed. Deftly, she moved to her dresser and her delicate hands traveled over the smooth mahogany and pulled out the first drawer. She produced a large leather-bound book and returned to her former spot on the bed with it in her hands.

"What's that?" Taku asked as she sat before him and placed the book between them.

"It's a photo album. I love to take pictures, and I keep every picture I've ever taken in here," she told him, opening up it's cover and turning to the first page. On it was a large picture of a boy that looked exactly like Taku, including raven hair and emerald eyes, with Clara's arms slung around his neck, and her ankles locked around his waist. He seemed to be giving her a piggy-back ride. "This was us the middle of our freshman year. We were walking home with a few friends and I complained about being tired. He offered to give me a piggy-back ride and the next thing I knew my friend Jodie had snapped a picture."

"Cute," Taku told her, watching her melancholy smile as she flipped the page. Taku took a look at the next page, which were random pictures of Sean and what he assumed to be her friends. "I can tell you loved him," Taku told her. "The way you smile when you see his picture, and the way you laugh when you're recalling things about him."

Clara smiled a muted smile, brushing a lock of maroon hair behind her ear. "I'm getting better now," she told him, looking up into his mesmerizing eyes. "I used to cry about him all the time, and he used to be all that was on my mind. I barely thought about him until you came into my life. I took a preconceived dislike for you, because I wanted to push you away. I thought if I let you too close, I'd start treating you like Sean and you'd get a little…weirded out by it."

"The only thing that weirded me out was you calling me Sean today," he told her. Taku watched as she averted her gaze from his. A lock of hair fell from behind her ear, into her face, and he brushed it away carefully. "But I understand now."

"It's bothered me so much. I thought I had gotten over him…I never wanted to, so I tried to mind-erase myself. Sara stopped me and told me it wasn't the death of him I should reflect on…it was the times we had together." Clara stopped for a second and sighed. "Sometimes she's too smart for her own good. But then, I came here, and all those feelings came rushing back as you looked so much like him and acted so much like him. It took all my self-control not to start hugging and kissing you right there," Clara let out a sardonic laugh. "So, I tried to push you away. I had a tendency to do that after his death. All my friends left me, because they said I was too obsessed with him, even after he was gone. I had no one but Sara."

Clara looked up. "You're the only person who knows this. Please don't tell anyone," she pleaded.

"I won't," he was hasty to swear. "I promise. I would never do that to you. Not after everything you've been through."

"Thanks," she replied, wiping her face. "Taku." She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. "You're the best," she whispered emotionally into his ear. "Thanks for everything."

"Clara," he started, watching her pull away to look him in the eye, her arms still around his neck. "It's no problem. I've got a serious problem about being accepted. The minute I met you, and the minute you shot down my first attempt at a civilized conversation, I knew I'd be fighting for your approval."

"Well…" Clara trailed off, managing a small smile through her slight sniffling. "You may not have it yet, but you're coming damn well close."

"And that's all I could ever ask for," Taku responded with his toothy grin, readjusting his lower half so one leg was dangling off the bed and the other was stretched out next to Clara. Clara readjusted herself so she was sitting cross-legged before him, her hands resting on her legs.

"So, now that you've heard about me and my past…Tell me a bit about yourself. How did you come to Jump City? How did you become a rubber-man?" Clara asked.

Taku smiled in reminiscence. "How long have you been-you know?-Gothic, like this?"

"Actually…my mother was a demon and my father was an angel. Not like an angel that was dead, though," she told him. "He was an angel sent to Earth to keep my mother from committing suicide when she was seventeen. My mother never technically wanted to be a demon, obviously no one does, but her father was a demon of death and his wife was a human. But her father cheated on her mother with Satan's wife, and she was born, raised by her mother on Earth after Satan's wife was banished in hell," Clara explained. "It's really confusing. But my mom, Sarelica, was sixteen when she was trying to get through high-school and normal life as a demon, and she realized that she wanted to die and go live in hell with my grandfather. Instead, my father was sent to Earth to help her through it, and they fell in love. They married, and Sara and I were the product of that relationship. My mother influenced me more, though I was both half-demon and half-angel, while Sara was influenced by our father. I have dressed the way I do for a very long time now, probably since I was born, to represent the darkness prophesized for my life and the dark magic contained in my body. The same goes for Sara with light magic."

"Wow," Taku responded. "Complicated. And very…interesting, for lack of better words. I happen to know that Raven is half-demon, too."

"Yea, my mom said she was one very well-known half-demon in hell. Everyone knew of Trigon, the prophecy, and everything," she told him.

Taku nodded. "Well, there's not much to my past. My parents, mybrother, and mysisterdied in a house fire, a grand arsony,when we lived in San Andreas, when I was three. I was found amongst the rubble andI wasgiven tomy legal guardians, my aunt and uncle Jan and Mark Turner. I went to work with my uncle constantly, for he was a prestigious scientist, and when I was seven I was involved in a chemical accident that disintegrated my bones and turned all my muscles, skin, and whatnot into rubber. A few days after my fourteenth birthday, I was, too, contacted by Batman," he told her. "He told me he admired my powers and wanted to recruit me for the new Teen Titans. I couldn't say no to that."

Clara nodded interestedly, watching him with tired eyes. "About your parents and your siblings…" Clara looked away. "I know what it's like to lose people close to you. There has been a lot of death in our lives."

"I'm sorry, Clara," he whispered hoarsely. "I never knew my parents, so it was hard growing up, and after Maria and Matthewdied it was unbearable. I often felt…alone, and isolated. It was hard being a kid at such a time. And well, life only got worse from there. Can you imagine there was an actual point in my life where I would've been suicidal if I could've died like anyone else?" Clara gasped. "I know. Can you imagine? Innocent, easygoing, carefree Taku actually wanted to die…I guess everyone has a dark side. There's a dualistic tone to everything."

"That's very…profound," Clara whispered. "I'm amazed."

Taku smiled through soft tears beginning to shine in his eyes. "I am too. Never thought something that intelligent could come from my mouth. You're beginning to have an effect on me."

"I hope so. You need an intelligent influence in your life," she told him with a coy smirk. Her smirk soon drifted from her face, though, as her palm came to rest upon his smooth and rubbery cheek. "And I'm sure as hell not talking about Danny. That boy is more dangerous than Hotspot in an oil field."

"I know, but he's keeping me company. I haven't felt lonely since I've joined the Titans. I feel…" Taku trailed off and tilted his head to the side, his eyes fluttering closed.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Taku! Clara! Kimi's friends are arriving and I'd think you want to get ready for her party," a voice that sounded much like Kyle's announced.

"Yea, so stop doing whatever the hell you twos is doing and put the pedal to the metal! We're starting the party in fifteen whether you're there or not," Danny stated. The two sprang apart and looked to each other, blushing faintly.

"You probably wanna go get showered and changed," Clara told him. "I'll see you up in the living room in ten minutes."

"'Kay," he replied, sitting up from her bed and giving her a short embrace. "Remember…y'know, if you ever want to talk, or just hang out, my door's always open," he suggested with a soft smile.

"Right back at ya," she replied, not bothering to smile, but he knew she meant well. "Oh and Kyle?"

"Yea?" he asked, pausing at the frame of her door, one hand on the wall, his neck twisted around to meet her gaze. Clara smirked.

"Don't ever tell anyone I cried, or I'll have to rip your eyeballs out and use them to…well, you don't want me to finish that sentence. Ok?"

Taku smiled softly. "Deal."

And he left without another word.

Clara had showered and prepared about twenty minutes later, feeling fresh and ready for this party that would be no doubt filled with overly-peppy people. The Gothic girl was clothed in knee-high black boots with rather large heels, coupled with fishnet tights a black pinstriped skirt, and a maroon shirt that fell off her shoulders and made her look darkly elegant. Her hair was curled softer than normally (she had used a new spell on it for the occasion) and she had less amounts of eyeliner on than normal. She wanted to look what her father called 'decent' for this party.

"Ok…" Clara sighed to herself, straightening her skirt then reaching to her black wrought iron/glass vanity. Her pale and fragile hands nimbly picked up her eye shadow case, opened it up, and lightly brushed on some maroon eye shadow.

There was a light rapping on her bedroom door. "Clare? You ready, hun?" her sister asked. Clara breathed in and out, nervously picking a fuzz of lint from her shirt, before starting for her door. The minute she left, her lights automatically shut themselves off.

"Ready as I'll ever be," she responded, surveying her sister. Her counterpart was clad in a light denim skirt, a navy blue polo, and a white and navy track jacket, with a pair of white and blue sneakers laced tight on her feet. Her hair was done exactly as her sister's, and her make-up consisted of small amounts of eyeliner and blue eye shadow.

"You look…nice," her sister told her, though it was true she had a strong dislike for her and her mother's taste in clothing.

"And you look extremely peppy today," Clara replied with a sweet smile. "I just hope I live through a room full of preps."

"You'll live, I promise," Sara laughed, as Kyle walked from his room and joined them. He wedged himself between the two girls.

"Hey y'all," he greeted, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jeans and smiling from behind his dark sunglasses. "What's crackin?"

"Stop trying to be ghetto," Clara reprimanded him.

"Stop trying to get your freak on with Taku," he retorted with a sly smirk. Clara stared him down, a dangerously malicious look in her eyes as he practically shrank down beneath her gaze.

"Now that is one comment I know will NEVER slip from your mouth EVER again," she told him stolidly, walking on with a brisk stride. "Or I might just have to brew up a Cruxis Creenis potion."

"You wouldn't," Sara gasped, turning to Kyle and throwing her arms around his neck. "I won't let you!"

Kyle smirked. "Yeah, Sara won't let you!" he retorted, resting his hands on the arm that came across his upper chest. "Uh…what does a…potion-that-you-just-said do?"

"Cruxis Creenis?" Sara asked. Kyle nodded absently. "It's a horrible potion…complicated to brew…but basically it replaces your arms with your legs, your legs with your arms, your ears with your eyes, and your eyes with your ears. It makes it painful too. It's known as one of the cruelest potions in the magical world."

Kyle let out a scared 'eep'. "Oh, stop whining, you baby," Clara joked. "I wouldn't do that to you."

"What wouldn't you do to who?" Taku asked Clara as he joined them, next to her, in their journey up to the living room.

"I'm not so sure anymore," Clara stated through gritted teeth, glaring daggers at Kyle and Sara who were now giggling like little schoolgirls.

Taku raised his eyebrows in question, before sighing dejectedly and giving up any hope of understanding his childish friends.

The four arrived in the living room a few minutes later, seeing about five of Kimi's friends had already arrived for the party at seven. Kimi was sitting in Danny's lap, her long and tinted orange legs crossed, and her long arms wrapped around his neck. The birthday girl was clad in a black cargo skirt and a light blue long-sleeved shirt.

"It was so funny…" one of her friends laughed. "Tim walked right into the wall!"

"It wasn't my fault! I didn't see it!" the boy who was presumed Tim, a tall, brown-eyed boy with long blonde hair, retorted. "Ben's big-ass hair was in my way!"

"Don't blame my 'hawk for nothing!" a boy with a tall brown Mohawk shouted. "The women think it's sexy."

"Of course, Benny-Boy, you look absolutely downright sexy with that Mohawk," a girl joked, smiling widely, showing off a set of braces.

"I know," the guy hissed, running a hand through his hair.

"Ok, Sara says move outta her seat before she kicks some asses," Sara joked, moving over the boy named Tim, letting Kyle take the seat next to her. Clara leaned against the couch behind Danny and Kimi, and Taku took the spot between Danny and Kimi and Tim.

"Well," Kimi started, clapping her hands and standing up from Danny's lap. "Let's see…" she grabbed Taku's hand and pulled him to the front of the room, and did the same to Kyle and Sara, before tugging on Danny's hand. Clara flew up and over the couch of her own accord. "I know y'all already know me and Danny," Kimi stated with a smile to her friends assorted on the couch. And until the other fifty-something people arrive-"

"Fifty something people?" Kyle asked incredulously, his eyes bugging from their sockets. "What happened to 'we will be responsible while living in this tower'?"

"Oh, Kyle, calm down. We're teenagers. They should've figured we would break a few of the rules," Kimi replied coyly. "Anyways-" Kimi was cut off by the ringing of the doorbell and sighed in annoyance. "-Danny, go get the doorbell." He was about to protest when Sara rang in.

"Remember, Dan-Dan, four days left!" she squealed in delight. "She still has full control."

Danny muttered incoherently under his breath before trudging off to greet the friends he hadn't seen in quite a while. "Baby," Kimi muttered. "Anyways, this here is Kyle," she motioned to Kyle who smile brightly and waved. "Better known as Hawk. These girls here are Sara and Clara. Twins, obviously, but very different," Kimi told her friends with a smile. Clara looked indifferent and grumpy, while Sara smiled and waved flirtatiously to both Ben and Tim who were VERY attractive.

"Hey there," Tim greeted, jerking his head to clear the hair from his eyes.

"Hey," Sara greeted in turn, taking a seat between Ben and Tim on the couch. Kimi chuckled and rolled her eyes, figuring that was exactly what Sara would do when introduced to these two.

"And," Kimi started. "That's Ben." She pointed to the one with the brunette Mohawk. "That's Tim." She pointed to the tall blonde. "This here's Paige," she pointed to a olive-skinned girl with dark chestnut hair that fell in slight waves to her chest and exuberant chocolate brown eyes. She waved happily. "And over there's Chris and Caroline," she finished up, pointing to a couple in the corner, who were sharing secretive glances. The boy had a curly mane of black hair with sparking hazel eyes, and the girl was dark-skinned and full-lipped.

"Hey ev'rybody," Kyle greeted with a lazy smirk as Danny returned with about six more people. It was hard to tell how many heads were in the crowd. There were two, though, that stuck out like sore thumbs.

"Mommy!" Kimi squealed childishly, flying up and over the couch to hug her mom tightly.

"Kimi!" her mom squealed in return, opening her arms wide and taking her child in a tight embrace. "Happy day of birth, my child," she whispered in her ear after she had broken through the throng of teenagers.

"I see you're taking care of our tower," Richard murmured as he inspected the number of teenagers sitting on the couch and nibbling on chips and dip.

"Oh, dad, it's my birthday, lighten up," Kimi retorted with a smile as her mother released her.

Richard looked stunned at his daughter's words, but Kori smirked. "Yea, Richard, lighten up," she told him, her smirk turning into a large grin.

"Telling me to lighten up? Remember that when you want me to-" but Kori darted forward and clamped her hands over his mouth, before reprimanding him for using such innuendos in front of their daughter. "What?" he asked when she had released his mouth. "It's not like she didn't catch the drift with the whole shower incident."

Kori sighed and rolled her eyes before Kimi darted forward and hugged her father with great force. "I will never get used to the fact that I can call Nightwing my daddy."

"Well, I will never get used to the fact that I am a daddy, so it evens out," he joked, kissing her forehead. "Happy birthday, baby."

"Thanks," Kimi replied, looking up at him. "Now where are my presents!" she asked giddily.

Kori raised her eyebrows. "Now, now, Kimi dearest. If I have taught my child anything, it is that your day of Senkron is not about the presents, it is about the celebration of your introduction into the world," she stated. "And it seems you have quite the celebration here."

"In half an hour it'll be bumping," Danny stated with a dimpled smile, popping up next to Kimi and wrapping an arm around her waist. "Hey Nightwing, hey Star. About fifty more people showing up. Even Kay's gonna try and stop by."

"Not the infamous Kaytlin Maytrino," Kori chuckled. "You two have been best friends since before I can remember."

Kimi smiled. "Yup. I can't wait to see her."

"Neither can I," Danny chimed in. "Anyways, I better go-" the doorbell cut him off. "-answer the doorbell," he finished, though that had clearly not been his beginning intentions. "Bye babe," he left Kimi with a peck on the cheek. "Bye Starfire, Nightwing."

"Bye Danny," the three replied, as they watched the blonde boy walk off.

"I do want to stay, Kimand'r," Kori told her. "But I don't want to bring down the party."

"If anything, you guys would be the life of it. You are two of the fifteen most notable figures in Jump City. Can we say party time?" Kimi asked, in a matter-of-factly way.

"Yes we can," her mother stated. "But we feel you deserve to see your friends. Just, do not do anything I would not wish you to do."

"Uh, I strongly second that statement!" Richard chimed in matter-of-factly. "All these kids alone with my little girl, God knows what could happen."

Kimi rolled her eyes. "I'll be fine mommy. Kyle is uptight like no one's business so I promise the party won't get too wild."

"I HEARD THAT!" Kyle yelled from halfway across the room.

"Sorry Kyle!" Kimi chimed back with a small chuckle.

"Well dear, we put your gifts in your room. Call us when you open them tonight, ok Hun?" her mother asked sweetly.

"Ok mom. And I'll start planning for my Quines next years," Kimi joked.

"Quines?" Richard asked. "Holy Batman, please stop talking about things I can't comprehend."

"Holy Batman?" Kori asked, her eyebrow raised. "Talk about saying things you cannot comprehend. A quines is like a sweet sixteen. Quine is fifteen in Tamaranian, and a quines is the coming of age party for Tamaranians. When you are fifteen, you are considered an adult. There are certain laws you must abide by until your fifteenth birthday. Like-" Kori leaned over and whispered something in his ear.

Richard's eyes went wide and he looked to his daughter in astonishment. "You are, under no circumstances, turning fifteen."

"Richard, lighten up," Kori told him with a small chuckle. "It is only Tamaranian culture." Kori leaned over and pecked him on the lips. "I promise she'll be a good girl."

"Ew," Kimi deadpanned. "X'hal gouge my eyes out…please."

"Oh, Kimi, it's no better than knowing by your fifteenth birthday you'll be, by Tamaranian law, legally able to have an active sex life and possibly be married," Kori retorted.

"LA LA LA LA LA! LA LA LA LA LA!" Richard sang, desperately trying to erase this conversation from his mind. "I can't hear you. We're not talking about my daughter's love life!"

Kori sighed and pulled his fingers away from his head, before whispering softly into his ear. "Ooh…" he cooed, his eyes widened perceptibly. "Ok, I'm fine now."

Kimi shuddered, rubbing her temples. "I WANT to know," she stated sarcastically. "Bye mom, dad, I'll call you tonight."

"Bye Kimi," Richard whispered into her ear as he hugged the two women who were most important in his life. "Have a good birthday, baby."

"Thanks mom, thanks dad," she replied, pulling away. "I love you both. And don't worry, dad. I may be born, half-raised, and taught on Tamaran, but I do hold some Earthen values. I promise I won't be running off with boys in the very near future."

"That's my girl," Richard responded, smiling, as he pulled away. "We'll keep in touch."

"Goodbye, Kimiand'r," Kori stated with one last hug. "We shall come to visit you soon."

Kimi smiled and skipped back to join her good friends in conversation. "So…where were we?"

TT2