Disclaimer: (xD I put "discalimer") I don't own Teen Titans. Or iPods. But I want a green one...

Dedication: FallenTeenHearts because she's like...one of my favorite reviewers. They always mentions specific things she likes about the chapter, not the completely annoying and generic "gr8 chapter update soon". Happy belated birthday.

Kori looked at me, eyes narrowed. Her mouth was curved into a frown as I spoke. "Look, Kori, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that." I sighed and looked down.

"No Richard, you're not sorry. You're never sorry!" she yelled at me, tears streaming down her face.

"Kori, I—"

"Richard I hate you!" She ran off and I stood there, in shock.

"…no…"

I shot up in bed and gasped as I saw my friends staring at me. Raven and Victor were looking up from on the floor, the others still asleep. Kori was looking at me from her position next to me. "Richard, are you okay?" she asked. "You were screaming." I turned to her and hugged her, my head buried in the curtain of her hair. She wrapped her arms around me in return.

I just cried quietly onto her shoulder and attempted to calm down my breathing. My heart pounded against my chest and my shoulders were shaking. Kori whispered comforting words in my ear in an attempt to make me feel better. I embraced her tighter and I finally felt my breathing return to normal.

"Kor can handle this," Victor muttered as he laid back down on the floor, Raven doing the same. It was quiet for a few minutes, until I finally spoke.

"You said…you said that you hated me," I muttered.

"Richard…you know I could never hate you," Kori assured me.

"I did something bad…really bad. I hurt you Kori. I was just…so angry. I'm not sure why. But I'm afraid that…someday I might do that to you." I sighed and looked down. Kori pulled out of the hug and kept her hands gripping tightly on my shoulders.

"Richard, I do not think there is anything that you could ever do to make me hate you. I love you…so much that…I don't think it is possible for me to—" I cut her off instantly with a kiss, and she stiffened up due to shock, but after a moment she relaxed. She wrapped her arms back around me and kissed back, passionately. After a minute we broke apart for air.

We just stared at each other for a little bit, until she giggled and pulled me down onto the bed. I almost screamed as she grabbed me, but she slapped her hand over my mouth. I laughed when she let go and turned to look at her, our faces close together. I leaned over and gave her another kiss.

We didn't get much sleeping done that night.

The music from my headphone pounded in my ear as I put the volume up on my iPod. I stuffed the small, black music player back into my pocket and glanced at the girl next to me. She had the other headphone stuffed into her ear as she hummed sweetly along to the music. Her fingers occupied themselves by twirling around my dark hair, which was a bit annoying, but I'd have to deal with it. "Kori?"

"Mm?" Kori questioned.

"You do realize this isn't exactly the kind of song you'd hum happily to, right?" I told her, raising an eyebrow. Kori nodded.

"The music isn't what's making me happy…" she muttered, and I felt a light blush form on my cheeks. I put both my arms around her and pulled her over closer to me, causing her to let out a little yelp of surprise. She fell back onto my lap and giggled as she pulled herself up. She smiled at me and I leaned in closer to her. Our lips were just about to touch and…

"Richard!" Garfield whined, causing Kori and I to pull away from each other, blushing madly. I turned to look at Gar, my hands still resting on Kori's waist.

"What?" I asked the blonde, agitated. He sighed.

"Can you…tell Raven that…I'm sorry?" he asked, looking down towards his feet. I rolled my eyes.

"Why don't you tell her yourself," I snapped, remembering the fight from the day before. Garfield had begun getting over flirty with the other girls at my party, and Raven got annoyed, so she began to yell at him. Gar began to argue that he could flirt with anyone he wanted, and Raven didn't agree with that. So it turned into an insult war. I wasn't forgiving Garfield too easily. Raven was right to be mad at him.

Garfield sighed. "Do you…know where she is?" I shrugged and told him to get lost. He frowned and walked away, into the school. I turned back to Kori, who was shaking her head in disapproval at me.

"Raven deserves better than him," I explained. Kori sighed.

"Maybe…she doesn't want someone better. When you love someone…it doesn't matter how good of a person they may be. It doesn't matter what they may do or say to you. And it definitely doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. If…you truly love someone…nothing else matters," she explained. I nodded and then it hit me. Garfield and Raven weren't the only ones she was talking about. I blushed and she smiled at me. I smiled back and leaned in to get that kiss I had been ready for a few moments before.

Kori wrapped her arms around my neck and planted her lips on mine; giggling just a bit before they made impact. I pulled her closer to me and I leaned back, expecting to hit the tree. Instead, I fell back onto the grass. Kori pulled back for a second and laughed before going back in for another kiss. Several other students walked by, most of them laughing at us, while some just glared. One boy even kicked me in the head. Somebody's a little too jealous…

We continued to kiss until the bell for homeroom rang, and we shot up in surprise. Kori looked at me, horrified. "We're late!" she exclaimed, getting to her feet. She grasped my wrist tightly and ran into the building, dragging me in after her.

I walked out of Ms. Rouge's room and groaned. Kori and I had gotten detention for being late for class. Although, explaining why we were late was much worse. We had to tell Ms. Rouge that we had been kissing in front of the whole class. It was…embarrassing.

"I shall meet you by the front doors!" Kori chimed as she we went separate ways towards our lockers. I walked over towards mine, across the way from the art room, and opened it up. I sighed as I pulled out my homework, and slammed it shut. I smiled as I looked at the construction paper taped onto my locker. It had been decorated for my birthday. Many signatures and notes were written all over it from various students, but the largest one, right in the middle, caught my eye.

It was written in frilly script writing with a green pen, and all the forms of punctuation were replaced with little hearts. My smiled grew as I began to read the message written:

Richard-

I wish you have the best birthday ever, and if it is not, I do hope that it is at least close to being so. Ever since we have met, I have always hoped for you to be happy. Truthfully, I hoped for a lot of things when I met you.

I thought I was foolish when the thought of the "going out" with you entered my head. I never dreamed that you had felt the same for me, and was shocked to know that you had had the feelings way before I did. True, I did have a small crush on you since the very first day of knowing you, but I did not even realize how much I really cared until you got hurt. Seeing you in the condition you were in was so heartbreaking, and at the moment I just wanted to kiss you.

Even after we had gotten extremely close, I felt ridiculous thinking about you the way I did. I was convinced that you would never feel anything more than mere friendship for me. Those few, awkward kisses we had shared always made me a bit sad, knowing that none of them really meant anything, and each time you would kiss me, I would fear it would be the last.

I would never change anything that has happened between us, even the bad things, because I know that they had all happened for a reason. If we had never had that fight on my birthday, you would not have made that picture you had; instead you probably would have just bought some really expensive jewelry or something. And just so you know, I love that painting more than any piece of jewelry that you could give me. When you had given it to me, I had realized that…maybe we were not "just friends" and perhaps we could be…more.

The painting is still hanging up in my room. It is on my ceiling, above my bed, so I can look at it every morning, and I think about you right when I open my eyes. I think about a lot of things that have happened between us, the good, and the bad. But I will admit, the thing I think of most is the day of the ski trip. The day that you saved my life. The day you had told me what you really felt for me. The day that I got that one real, first kiss I had been waiting so long for.

I fear that if I write much more, that there will be no more space for anyone else to wish you a happy birthday in. And you probably will not read this anyway. But, I think you already know what I am trying to say in all this rambling. I love you Richard Grayson, and I always will. No matter how much you think you are unworthy.

-Kori ♥

Next to it, written in small print letters, a little note was scribbled down. I smiled.

You are worth more than you will ever know.

I laughed as I listened to Kori's miserable tale. We had somehow gotten onto the topic of Kori's pasts relationships. All of which were with perverted, rich, Italian boys who were picked out by her father. The most recent story was of a boy named Tony, who had at first, seemed pretty nice. But he didn't like taking things very slowly in their…"relationship", and made many attempts to kiss her.

"So then," Kori continued, "The stupid clorbag suggested we go for a walk in the gardens nearby. Father made me go along with him. While in the garden, my shoe came untied, so I bent down to tie it. So while I am bending down, he flips up my skirt." She shook her head at me as I chuckled. "And so I turned around to look at him, and I am screaming at him, and afterwards, all he does is lean over and kiss me." She put her palm to her forehead and rolled her eyes. I heard her mutter a swear and I raised my eyebrows.

"Did Kori Anders just curse?" I questioned, grinning. She hit me playfully in the shoulder.

"You are a bad influence," she reasoned, and I laughed. I didn't have the best mouth. "Ok, so tell me about your past relationships." Kori sat up straight and crossed her legs, waiting for me to begin.

"Well…" I ran a hand through my hair and sighed. "In the seventh grade, Barbara Gordon asked me out." Kori cringed slightly. "I said yes since, back then…I wasn't the kind of person to be able to turn someone down." Kori rolled her eyes. "But…after a few days, I broke up with her, since she never left me alone. She wasn't letting me get away though. See…she had told her best friend Cassie that she would have her first kiss with me. And…she did. When I broke up with her, she just grabbed the collar of my shirt and flung herself at me."

Kori laughed. "Sounds like Barbara," she muttered. I nodded.

"In the eighth grade…I went with Raven to the formal, to avoid any other girl from taking me…especially Barbara. But…for some reason…while at the dance…Raven…kissed me. We try to forget that that ever happened. She was just confused."

Kori nodded and I continued on with my stories.

"Then…ninth grade. Umm…" I thought for a moment. "Oh yeah." I grimaced. "This is one…I really don't like thinking about. Back before Kitten started going out with Fang…she used to follow me around. A lot." I could tell by the look on Kori's face she wasn't liking this story already. "So one day…she kinda pinned me up against the wall when I was late for class, since no one else was around, and she kissed me. I ran into the nearest bathroom and washed my mouth out after that."

Kori put her hands over her mouth to hold in her laughter.

"In tenth grade…I was working on this project with a girl named Crystal Garette. She moved later on that year. But, I was busy reading in the textbook to get information for the project. Crystal was just kind of sitting there, twirling her black hair around her fingers. She told me to close my eyes, and I was like 'why?' and she just told me 'you'll see'. So…I stupidly closed my eyes. And she leans over and gives me a kiss. I shoved her off immediately and I was like 'what the hell?'"

Kori laughed.

"Here, let me show you what she looked like." I got up and walked across my room over towards a book shelf. I bent down and pulled a year book off the bottom shelf, and sat back down on my bed next to Kori. I opened the old book from the 2001-2002 school year and flipped through the pages. I finally found her picture, situated right next to mine. I pointed to her, and Kori snorted. She had obnoxiously long black hair that must've reached her thighs, and dark brown eyes that didn't shine. Her smile was much too large and fake, making her look like a total bimbo.

Kori pushed my hand away, revealing my own picture. Kori giggled. In the picture was a small boy, with extremely messy, long black hair. His pale blue eyes didn't sparkle like the others', and the smile was just enough so the photographer would take the picture. On top of the boy's nose was a pair of glasses. Kori turned to me and grinned, making me blush. I had ditched my glasses long ago and traded them in for contacts, but Kori hadn't known that.

"You looked so cute!" Kori concluded, giggling. My face turned redder and I grabbed the yearbook and slammed it shut. The golden "Jump City Middle School" letters on the cover shined in the light that came in through my window and I smiled slightly, remembering the old school. Kori threw her arms around me again and I struggled to escape. She rested her head on my shoulder and whispered in my ear. "You are still that cute."

Major KorixRichard fluff chapter :D Yay fluff. And we got a little insight on what happened between Gar and Rae, AND we get to learn a bit about the past um..."romances" of our favorite couple xD And oh God was that letter on Richard's locker romantic, jeez. I'm such a saaaap.

Me go sleep now. It's 1:45AM. Technically, in my time zone, this update is an hour and 45 minutes late. But shush.

Next Update: Chapter 26 (I still can't figure out why on my computer I have 26 chapters, but on fanfiction I have 25) Idunno, October 16th