I don't own the characters, DC does and I'm guessing they're quite happy with that Please read and review.
Chapter 2
Kori busied herself with the tables and the small wet cloth she had.
It always shocked her to see people leave the tables in the state they did.
She was leaning over the table, scrubbing some fizzy drink that had been spilled and left to pool and harden, leaving a very sticky mess.
"Could someone please pass me the cleaner, please?" she asked politely not looking back.
She'd left the bottle on the counter and she knew for a fact that there were still customers at the counter.
They grunted into response so she craned her neck to see what was so distracting.
Leaning over the table as she was, she had put herself in a compromising position and the customers were enjoying the view, so to speak.
She shot up and shot them all glares and they turned back to their meals, disappointed.
Kori began spraying the table absentminded, her thoughts drifted back to Dick.
He had definitely made an impact with his jet black hair and rich blue eyes and pale skin.
He was shorter than her by an inch or so but she didn't mind.
He wasn't lanky or bodybuilder proportioned, but he was toned and muscular with a wash board flat stomach with a six pack forming.
What impressed her more than his appearance, which really did impress her, was just him.
The way he stood up for her, the way he smiled at her, talked to her and how he hid.
He was so private, his heart closed off, she could tell.
She had a sense about these things and since she met him, her sense was all over the place.
There was so much she wanted to share with him and so much she wanted him to share with her.
It was ridiculous but she imagined that he if he asked, she'd follow wherever he led.
Kori giggled at herself, always the hopeless idealist.
Her pleasant daydreams were squashed with a gruff "Get the man a refill, princess!"
Dick strode into the restaurant; sunglasses perched on his nose preventing anyone from making eye contact with him unless he wanted them to.
He had dressed more carefully today in a pair of chino's, a black tee shirt and a suede jacket and was scanning the restaurant for Kori.
The door of the kitchen swung open and Dick instantly tried to look bored and annoyed, playing it 'cool'.
The effect was slightly ruined when his passive expression turned into a scowl.
"Mr Grayson!" Casper cried out, from the kitchen door.
"Was hoping you'd drop by, got the nicest place in the joint for ya!" he announced with triumph, moving towards a booth near the window.
Kori emerged from the kitchen and smiled shyly when she saw him.
Dick grinned back and interrupted Casper.
"I'll sit at the counter!" he insisted much to Casper's horror.
"Alright whatever you want, My Grayson. Kori!" he growled in frustration as Kori approached him from behind.
"Kori, get your sorry butt out here "he turned around and jumped when he saw her standing right behind him "Don't do that!"
"Do what, Casper?" she asked innocently.
Dick wasn't sure but if it was anyone else but Kori standing behind her boss like that with her blank face and eyes wide with innocence, he would sworn they snuck up on their boss just to give him a fright, although given her little grin when he turned away from her again, that wasn't impossible
"Hi Dick" Kori greeted cheerfully stepping behind the counter and stopping opposite him.
"I didn't think you'd come back" she carried on, leaning in the kitchen door reaching fir something.
She popped back out with a plate loaded with raw meat.
Dick stared at the vast amounts of meat.
"Expecting a four thirty rush of ravenous tigers?" he asked, nodding at the food.
Kori stared at him puzzled before she let out a childish giggle.
"Something like that" she answered vaguely.
"You get that order sorted yet?" Casper demanded gruffly from the kitchen.
"You told me never to interfere with the running of this joint or you'd throw me out so fast, I'd go forward twenty years in the future and see what crazy bag lady I'd become" Kori recited, placing her finger on her cheek with her eyes raised, like she was really thinking about this.
Dick shot him a dirty look for being so rude to Kori yet again and Casper flushed, and shuffled into the kitchen muttering something about having parrots in his business.
The front door burst open, sending the little bell into frenzy.
Kori was completely unfazed as she slipped various meats onto different grills while Dick turned to the noise instantly.
An African American teen stood at the door.
He looked to be the same age as Dick, maybe a year older and was much more muscular than him, like he was always working out.
He had narrow grey eyes and was wearing an old tee shirt over a pair of tracksuit pants.
His gaze flew to Kori immediately who watched him with a smile.
"Hey Kori, guess who's just been promised the football scholarship in the Gotham Knights training program?" he yelled out, his voice bouncing around the small restaurant.
"You always ask me such questions and the answer is invariably the same" Kori pointed out, amused.
"C'mon girl, one lil' guess?" he almost pleaded.
"You?" both Dick and Kori answered in unison.
"Yeah it's me!" he looked at Dick curiously. "Who are you?"
"This is Dick, he's very kind. he stood up for me to Casper yesterday and it was the first time here" Kori answered for him, proudly.
The teen at the door eyed him carefully and then grinned.
"Well alright!" he sank onto the chair next to Dick.
"I'm Victor" he said, clapping Dick on the back which practically slammed him to the floor.
"Fire up the grills, Kori cause we are celebratin'' baby!"
Kori flipped the meat over and slid the meat that was done on to the plates before plopping a couple plates in front of Victor.
Dick stared at him in disbelief.
"You're going to eat all that ?"
"Sure am, growing boy needs to keep up his strength" Victor answered through a mouth of steak.
"So you probably go to Gotham Prep or something, right?" he asked after his first swallow.
Dick nodded mutely, staring at the vats amount of meat being wolfed down.
"No offence dude but your defence sucks!"
"Means nothing to me, I don't play sports" Dick replied casually.
"How about you Kori, where do you?" he trailed off realising the answer as he asked the question.
He had went in at about ten or eleven the day before when he should have been at school and Kori had been there all the time and she was still here meaning she probably didn't go to school.
"You think Princess has enough going on inside her head to get past first grade?" Casper's rude voice butted in.
He was about to laugh at his own joke when he saw the two boys and froze.
They had both jumped to their feet and balled their fists.
Casper backed into the kitchen and peered out to see if they were still shooting daggers at him.
They were.
Kori looked down, shame written on her face.
"Aw c'mon. You got more smarts in there than Casper has those weird nose hairs"
Kori smiled in spite of herself and even managed a weak giggle.
"Why do you take that? You could get a job somewhere else; you don't have to listen to that guy?" Dick demanded, his tone was harder than he meant it to be.
Dick immediately regretted his tone when he saw her sniff; she looked like a little lost girl who was just scolded by a stranger for bumping into them.
"I can't" and with that she ran to the kitchen.
"Man, I don't get it" Victor began as soon as she was out of earshot.
"Get what?"
"Kori! I mean, the girls not gonna win the Nobel Prize anytime soon but she's smart. A guy in her apartment block is a teacher and he teaches her an hour every night. People land way better jobs than this with half her brains. And girls who look like that are usually snapped up for modelling jobs in a second right?"
Dick thought about this, it did seem strange.
"Maybe no one's ever offered the job?" he suggested.
"That ain't it, man. Me and Kori, we've been friends for a while now, ever since she started working here. My parents are scientists; they're always trying to get me into it too. So I tell em' about Kori one day and they said that was a waste for someone so young. They get me to tell Kori they'd take her on, give her a job that wouldn't interfere with school and they'd even help her get up to pace and Kori took one look at Casper and told me 'no'."
"Maybe it's the pay"
"Nah, she gets next to nothing for pay and she's constantly in here. I don't think she ever gets a day off"
Dick stroked his chin thoughtfully. There was definitely something off here when a strange idea occurred to him.
"Maybe he's got something on her"
"What?"
"Maybe he knows something about her that she doesn't want anyone else to know and he's using it to tie her down to this place"
Victor looked dubious.
"Like what, think the dude's her dad?"
"Nah, given how ugly he is, he would have had to be with an incredibly hot woman to have a daughter who looks like Kori and I think we both know that isn't possible"
"Can't argue with that"
"Argue with what?"
Kori was back and was watching them curiously.
Dick looked at her carefully; there were no signs that she was upset at all even though moments before she had nearly been in tears.
She apparently hid things too, they were fast friends but they knew next to nothing about them and he got the feeling Victor didn't know much more than he did about the strange girl.
He wanted to help her but he couldn't when he didn't know the problem or anything about the person he was trying to help.
"That this is the best steak in the entire city" Victor answered, ripping a chunk of the steak off with his teeth.
"I've gotta go" Dick said quickly and left the restaurant abruptly before Kori or Victor could say anything to him.
Kori shot Victor a confused look and Victor shrugged in response.
"What's she hiding?" Dick asked himself as he made his way back home.
The question plagued him for hours.
He couldn't figure it out, probably because he knew next to nothing about the situation but one thing he did know that a guy like Casper was going to be the end of Kori.
There was only so much of that you could take without letting it get to you and from the display earlier he guess that Casper had gotten to her and was crushing her very slowly and painfully.
It had driven crazy enough that he decided to go see his guardian about the matter.
He hated asking Bruce for anything and when he did he tried to do it with as little words as possible and never actually wording his request.
Bruce in return would give him a brief appraising look and as long as he deemed acceptable would provide whatever it was Dick was looking for.
Dick was pacing in front of his office for ten minutes before Bruce had enough and called him in.
This led to a stalemate.
Bruce watched him, waiting for whatever it was he wanted to speak and Dick didn't want to ask him even though he wanted the help, both too stubborn to risk speaking first before Dick grunted in frustration and caved.
"I need to get some information on someone"
If Bruce was surprised, he didn't show it. He merely raised an eyebrow, telling Dick to elaborate without using any words.
"It's this girl I met yesterday"
"There are easier ways to deal with girls that catch your eye" his older man replied coldly, with a clearly unimpressed face.
"No! That's not it! Look, I just want to help her ok? She's my age and she's not going to school, she's working in this cheap, run down greasy spoon cafe and her boss is making her work these ridiculous hours for practically no pay and he treats her like something he scraped off the bottom of his shoe. I think he's got something on her and I want to help her but I can't because she's.... private"
"If she's private as you say, maybe it would be better to leave her that way"
"Leave this guy walk all over her because he knows something. You know that's not right!"
"Things often are not"
Dick glared at him and stormed out muttering about never asking for a favour ever again.
He spent the night trying to find information but he just didn't have the resources his mentor did.
By the time morning rolled around, his temper had only worsened.
Bruce was gone on some business trip so he'd be having breakfast on his own again.
He smirked at the thought of skipping school again and spending the day in Casper's just to annoy his mentor.
Alfred however had different plans, after serving breakfast he arrived in with a bulky file and handed it to Dick.
"What's this?"
"Mr Wayne instructed me to give you that and to escort you to the police station. Your friend is already there"
"What?!"
To be continued.