Raven stared for a moment, not really believing what she was seeing. "What are you doing?" she asked, her usual monotone tinged with a hint of disbelief. Fox looked up from his place at the stove, spatula in hand. He had forgone his uniform, instead dressing in a pair of jean shorts and a fatigue t-shirt that said "Now you can't see me".

"What's it look like I'm doing, I'm composing a sonnet." Raven rolled her eyes at the sarcastic edge in the newest Titan's voice.

It had been a week since Swamp fox and Inari had joined the Teen Titans, and as soon as they had gotten back to the tower, things had begun to change.

---FLASHBACK---

The race had ended in a tie between the R-Cycle and the Swamp Thing. While Robin's cycle was good at maneuvering, the bulk of the Swamp Thing was engine, and it packed quite a herd of horses into its chassis. Add that to the fact that Fox drove recklessly enough to make a New York cabbie piss his pants and whimper in sheer terror, and you had the two of them ending up in a tie at the entrance to the underwater tunnel that led to the tower's garage.

Once the team had disembarked and gone up to the main room, things had gotten strange again…

Fox looked around the common room for a moment, then looked to the wary faces of the Titans. "Okay guys let's clear the air a little. I don't expect you to trust us, until we've actually earned that trust. Until then, I pretty much expect some sort of surveillance, but please, try to keep it low key. If I find a camera in my toilet somebody's gonna get hurt." Cyborg and Beast Boy stifled chuckles at the example the bounty hunter used, while Raven and Robin both got repugnant looks on their faces. Starfire just colored at the thought of someone placing a camera in the toilet

"Looks like this guy is a realist," Cyborg muttered to Robin.

"Either that or he's trying to put us off our guard," Robin muttered back.

Fox smiled when he heard the remark, but didn't comment. "So.. where do I bunk?" he asked. Robin frowned.

"What about your pe-" a low menacing growl dared the Boy Wonder to complete that word, "-artner? Isn't he going to sleep with you?" Fox made a face at the wording of Robin's question, but shook his head no.

"Inari prefers to sleep in larger spaces with plenty of room to stretch out and more than one exit." He chuckled. To tell the truth, so do I., but I'll make do."

Fox had slept on the couch that night, and the next day he and Cyborg had gone in the T-Car to collect his belongings. They returned half an hour later towing a small trailer. When Robin had remarked on how little time that had taken, Fox's reply had been glib.

"When you move around as much as I did, packing only the essentials quickly is a must. I've packed that trailer so many times that I've gotten it down to an art form."

Fox had immediately settled into the room that had been designated as his. Raven had seen him hauling up a large dartboard studded with throwing knives, a laptop, and a few boxes. She could have sworn that one of them had had a shotgun sticking out of it, but she hadn't gotten a good enough look at it to be sure.

Fox had settled quickly, staying out of the way, but still managing to make his presence felt. He had quickly claimed the spare heavy bag in the training center, and had demonstrated his skills on it by pummeling it so hard and fast that it had seemed to smoke!

Occasionally he would disappear, and loud music could be heard blasting from his room, usually something by Guns N Roses, or some other older rock group. But then he would turn up in the damnedest places at the strangest times, like the security control center, or the security video archive in the middle of the night. He never gave an explanation about what he was doing, and when asked about it by Robin, he had replied evasively.

"Just doing what any fox would, learning the lay of the land." Then he'd left the other Titan puzzling over it, a worried crease between Robin's brows.

When Beast Boy had asked him why he always seemed to be going around at night Fox had replied that he was a night owl, which had aroused Starfire's curiosity at the unfamiliar term.

"Please, what is this owl of night, and how do you change into one? Are you a changeling like Beast Boy?" Fox had chuckled as Robin, who was also there, had quickly explained to her that he was using an expression that meant he preferred to work at night.

Inari was less intrusive than his partner, but was still visible. He didn't seem to intrude, he was just… there. He was always watching the Titans as they went about their daily business, and he never seemed to blink. Starfire had confided to Raven that Inari "creeps me out". Raven had just rolled her eyes, but secretly she was also a little put off by the fox's behavior. Beast Boy seemed nervous too, though not as much.

"Dude, I think he does it cause he knows it's creeping us out," he had said to Cyborg when the two were racing on the gamestation one day. Raven had merely glanced at the two over the top of her book

At one point Beast Boy and Cyborg had tried to tempt Fox into a racing game against them. He had declined. But when Cyborg had pressed the issue he had said, ""I will not bond. I will not share. I refuse to nurture." Dennis Leary. "Let me be and I'll let you live." Jim Kheen." Beast Boy had looked over to Raven, who was in her habitual pot, reading.

"Man Rae, this guy makes you look almost cheerful," Beast Boy whispered to Raven.

Her reply?

"What have I told you about calling me 'Rae'?" The changeling's ears drooped.

"Uh… don't?"

"You're learning."

Later Robin had tried to talk to Fox about how he was going to integrate into the others' training, but Fox had snorted and waved the issue away. When Robin had persisted, saying it could be a problem, Fox had said; "If you have a problem, and for some reason think that I can help, just remember this; if it can't be solved with liberal application of high explosives, guns, knives, torture, or sarcasm, don't bother coming to me."

All-in-all, most of the Titans were on the verge of seriously hurting their newest teammate, but every time their anger reached critical mass he'd do something to make them just have to forgive them. He'd gotten an oriental cookbook for Starfire that she'd been eyeing on a run through town, along with a package of Raven's favorite tea that she had run out of. Beast Boy had been appeased with a new music cd, while a replacement socket wrench for one that Cyborg had accidentally broken had calmed the 'borg's ire.

Only Robin had been left out for some reason, and while the former sidekick prided himself on his patience (AN: phfef, yeah right) he was quickly reaching the end of his rope.

---END FLASHBACK---

Raven sighed as she set about making her morning tea. Fox moved over to allow her room at the stove for a moment, then moved back into position. Raven raised an eyebrow when she caught him sprinkling something yellow over the food in the pan. "What are you doing?"

"Let's just say that Fuzzy and I decided to relieve Cyborg of one of his prejudices," Fox said, grinning evilly. Raven just rolled her eyes and set about preparing her tea.

'Not even here two weeks and Beast Boy's corrupted him. And here I thought he might have a modicum of sense,' Knowledge spoke up from inside Raven's head.

'At least I haven't been feeling any dark intentions off of him,' Raven retorted.

'True, but he's not nearly as open as Terra was," the smart emotion replied.

A few moments later, Fox moved the mass of eggs from the pan to a large plate. Raven looked at them for a moment.

"You can't be serious."

"Not if I can help it," was the somewhat cheerful reply. Fox scooped a portion of the eggs from the main plate to his own, and dug in with relish, occasionally draining some coffee from a mug at his elbow. A low grunt from the area in front of the couch announced Inari's awakening.

The fox padded into the kitchen, easily swung the door to the fridge open, and snarled back at the blue goop inside, before gently picking up a plate covered with plastic wrap in his jaws and setting it on the floor, closing the fridge with a shoulder. A few scratches with his claws took care of the wrapping, and the fox settled down to a leisurely breakfast of a leftover ham and bacon sandwich. A groggy Beast Boy stumbled in a moment later, looking rather ruffled in shorts and a wrinkled old AC/DC t-shirt. He sat down at the table, and gave the eggs the evil eye.

"You do know that you're eating a pile of murdered baby chickens, don't you?" he asked Fox. Fox shrugged.

""Not eating meat is a decision, eating meat is an instinct;" Dennis Leary." Beast boy just grunted, and began to make a plate of his tofu waffles. Cyborg, Robin and Starfire showed as he was finishing up.

"Greetings friends, on this glorious morning!" Starfire chirped. Fox took one long pull on his coffee, before getting up and pouring another mug.

"If I'm gonna be dealing with that kind of perkyness in the mornings on a daily basis I'm gonna need to stock up on coffee," he muttered to himself. The bounty hunter usually slept in a little past when everyone else woke up, but he had decided that a change was in order.

"Alright!" Cyborg exclaimed, rubbing his hands together, "This looks great!" He grabbed a plate and shoveled a huge helping onto it, before sitting down and digging in with gusto. He looked up at Fox after a few moments. "Dis is delifis!" he grinned, showering small pieces of egg everywhere. Just as he had finished his first helping, and was in the middle of getting seconds, Beast Boy sat down with his waffles, and, quite calmly and deliberately, scooped a portion of the eggs onto his plate. The silence was deafening.

"Friend Beast Boy, why have you suddenly forsaken your vegetarianism?" Starfire looked shocked.

"Did I miss something?" Raven asked.

"Um, Beast Boy, you do realize that those are eggs right?" Robin asked, looking slightly worried. He was having flashbacks of the changeling's behavior during the "beast" incident. Fox chuckled.

"Actually Rob, you guys were out of eggs. So…" He held up a small bottle of yellow food coloring. Cyborg's face was a picture of pure horror.

"Wait a sec, y-you mean that I just ate a plate of…"

"TOFU!" Beast Boy exclaimed, grinning madly. "Told you I'd get you to try it someday."

"This was just too easy," Fox smirked. He turned and gave Beast Boy a mock bow. "A masterful performance Fuzzy. Not even Raven had an inkling of our plan." Raven's eyes widened fractionally as she recalled the "murdered chickens" comment. It had been a setup!

Cyborg began to get green in the face, before turning and running from the kitchen. A few moments later, loud retching could be heard throughout the tower. Robin pushed his plate away. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not hungry anymore." Fox shrugged, and snagged the plate rim with his fork.

"Suit yerself bird boy, more for me'n Fuzzy."

"Better not eat too much. You're going to get your first taste of the obstacle course today." Fox choked on his coffee. He wiped a stray drip from his goatee, and glared at Robin.

"You sure you're a robin and not a cuckoo? You need to tell people about this kind of thing, beforehand!" Inari's head appeared over the top of the table, and he gave Robin an annoyed look, before stealing half of the tofu eggs off of Fox's plate. At that moment, Cyborg staggered in, looking severely ill. His face fell further as he saw Inari snatch the food.

"That aint natural," he muttered.

"Define natural," Fox quipped, taking one last sip from his mug. He stood up and left the room, muttering something to Inari about getting prepped. The fox chewed his last mouthful of soy product, gulped it down, and lazily followed after his partner. Robin's gaze followed the two for a moment, a wicked gleam in his eye.

'Cuckoo huh?'

---

A short time later

---

Fox toed the starting line of the obstacle course, digging in slightly to get better traction. Beside him Inari gave a low growl of anticipation, his eyes alert, his ears perked. Fox gave him a sidelong look. "Time to strut our stuff partner." Inari answered with a short rise in the pitch of his growl. "You're right, let's give 'em a good show."

Up in the control booth Robin and Cyborg looked over the various obstacles they would be throwing in Fox's way. Down on the ground level observation spot Raven, Beast Boy, and Starfire waited for the run to commence. Beast Boy looked a bit concerned, worrying one lip with his teeth. After a few moments of silence he spoke.

"Dude. I hope Robin doesn't go all extreme on Fox." Starfire looked a little disturbed by this comment.

"Beast Boy, why would Robin wish to go "all extreme" upon friends Fox and Inari?"

Raven rolled her eyes. "Don't worry about it Star, Beast Boy's mouth is just running without his brain checking the output. Again."

Beast Boy got a fighting glint in his eye, but it was suppressed as quickly as it came. "DUDE! I'm just saying that Robin might see Fox as a threat to his position as leader, and he may take…'steps', if ya know what I mean."

Raven looked at him blankly for a moment.

"That's it, no more Godfather marathons for you."

Back up in the control booth, Cyborg gave Robin a thumbs up. "Everything's ready man. You wanna give him the green light?" Robin nodded and punched the "START" button on the console. A large display of lights lit up next to Fox, and began to count down.

5…

4…

3…

2…

BUZ-Z-Z-Z-!

At the buzzer Fox and Inari both stepped out at the same time, Inari easily keeping in stride with the bounty hunter as Fox ran low to the ground, his duster flaring behind him like a cape. The bounty hunter had removed all extra gadgets and knives from his duster, keeping his arsenal down to the bare essentials/

They hadn't even gone three feet when the ground beside them began to rumble as huge pillars shot upwards on either side. Fox shouted something unflattering about Robin as the pillars began to crash into the ground behind him and Inari. Before making a quick hand signal in the fox's direction.

The two veered off away from the other and weaved around the crumbling columns until they were on the outside edge of the course, still running parallel to each other as the obstacles crashed harmlessly down into the center of the course behind them.

Up in the booth Robin was looking on in disbelief. Cyborg raised his eyebrow as the two continued on their way down the course, the bounty hunter's long legs seeming to eat up the distance.

"Well, that's one way to get around that one." Robin shook himself like a dog coming out of the water, before punching in a code on the console.

"It's a good tactical maneuver, but let's see what he does when it backfires on him."

On the ground Beast Boy and Starfire were loudly cheering their new teammate on, while Raven watched in silence, brows creased as she studied the older teen's moves.

Back on the course, the pillars sank back into the ground. Fox and Inari made as if to join back up in the center of the course, but before they had moved more than a handful of paces towards each other, the ground between them shuddered, before simply dropping away into a yawning abyss that stretched all the way to the finish line. Inari and Fox were now trapped on ten foot wide strips of land with an intervening gap of almost ten yards!

Fox stopped running for, walked over to the chasm, looked into the depths of the trench for a moment, then looked up and towards the control booth, before yelling something unflattering, unprintable, and downright un-nice about Robin's sexual preference and taste in clothes.

Beast Boy choked on the water he had been taking a drink of. He and Raven stared at Fox, stunned by the sheer stupidity of saying those things at this point in time.

Starfire looked at Raven, a wary look on her face. "Those were not kind words, were they Raven?" The goth shook her head.

"Not by a longshot Star," Beast Boy said.

Up in the control booth Cyborg was giving Robin a leery look. The half-machine could only think one thing as he saw Robin's fists clench and his eyebrow start to twitch.

'Oh boy, it's on now.'

Robin's fingers fairly flew as he put in a series of codes. As he finished punching the last button a series of mechanical whirs could be heard as more than twenty lasers moved into position along the remainder of the course.

All of them were locked on Fox.

The bounty hunter smirked as he pulled out his oakleys and a small stick-like piece of metal with a small button on top. "Looks like things just got more fun," he smirked, before he pressed the button.

Last night, Fox had been making one of his nightly sweeps of the Tower, and had stumbled across the control panel for the tower PA system, which incidentally was linked to the obstacle course PA as well. Never one to pass up the chance for some (relatively) harmless mischief, he'd set to work. A half hour and some very creative re-wiring later and…

Robin winced as a spike of white noise crackled through the PA system. However the wince turned to an open mouthed gape as the noise tapered off, an was replaced by the measured beat of a bass guitar and drum, before a keyboard joined in. As the lasers opened fire on Fox, the vocals of the song started.

You get up every morning

From your alarm clock's warning

Take the 8:15 into the city

There's a whistle up above

And people pushin', people shovin'

And the girls all try to look pretty

As BTO blared from the speakers, Fox began a dazzling display of acrobatics, pulling several small canisters from his duster as he did so. Three of these he hurled at the lasers on his side, while the others he pitched over towards Inari. As they sailed through the air, Beast Boy's keen eyes spotted a shift in the shape of the fox, something that didn't seem to belong.

And if your train's on time

You can get to work by nine

And start your slaving job to get your pay

If you ever get annoyed

Look at me I'm self-employed

I love to work at nothing all day

What it was was answered soon enough when a pencil-thin beam of red light flashed from it, lancing through the canisters and causing them to explode into a thick smokescreen that settled over the fox.

And I'll be...

Taking care of business every day

Taking care of business every way

I've been taking care of business, it's all mine

Taking care of business and working overtime

Work out!

More flashes of red light streamed from the cover of the smokescreen, each one slicing through a laser on Fox's side with the precision of a surgeons scalpel.

If it were easy as fishin'

You could be a musician

If you could make sounds loud or mellow

Get a second-hand guitar

Chances are you'll go far

If you get in with the right bunch of fellows

As this was going on, Fox had pulled his Desert Eagles out, and was preceding to show off his moving target skills. That is, he was moving to avoid the rapidly dwindling laser fire as he blasted apart his targets, the lasers on Inari's side.

People see you having fun

Just a-lying in the sun

Tell them that you like it this way

It's the work that we avoid

And we're all self-employed

We love to work at nothing all day

The two were steadily advancing, laying down a steady stream of fire as they did so. The other Titans could only watch wide-eyed at this profound example of teamwork.

And we be...

Taking care of business every day

Taking care of business every way

I've been taking care of business, it's all mine

Taking care of business and working overtime

Work out!

"Woah," Beast Boy breathed under his breath, to stunned for a more witty observation. Raven was, for once, at a loss for a sarcastic comment.

"Wow," she said.

(Spoken) Take good care of my business

When I'm away, every day whoo!

You get up every morning

From your alarm clock's warning

Take the 8:15 into the city

There's a whistle up above

And people pushin', people shovin'

And the girls all try to look pretty

As the two continued, now almost completely unopposed, Robin shook off the stupor he had fallen into, and tried to bring more lasers, metal tendrils, anything online to slow the two down. But any sign of movement on the course was blasted before it even had a chance to manifest itself as a danger to the two and they continued their steady pace.

And if your train's on time

You can get to work by nine

And start your slaving job to get your pay

If you ever get annoyed

Look at me I'm self-employed

We love to work at nothing all day

Taking care of business every day

Taking care of business every way

I've been taking care of business, it's all mine

Taking care of business and working overtime

Work out!

Fox smiled broadly, tipped his hat to Robin as he stepped across the finish line, bobbing his head in time to the music as the song began to wrap up, and put on his Oakleys.

Takin' care of business

Takin' care of business

Takin' care of business

Takin' care of business

Taking care of business every day

Taking care of business every way

I've been taking care of business, it's all mine

Taking care of business and working overtime

Work out!

Takin' care of business

Takin' care of business

Takin' care of business

Takin' care of business

As the last chords faded, the Titan's gathered round Fox and Inari. Robin pointed to the smoking laser barrel that was still protruding from the black fox's side.

"And the reason you didn't tell us about that little trick is?"

Fox shrugged.

"You never asked."

Robin slapped a hand over his eyes as Beast Boy and Cyborg cracked up. Even Raven gave a ghost of a smile, but it was there and gone before anyone could see it.

Or so she thought. A pair of emerald eyes had been watching her, as they usually did, and had caught the expression. Something seized up in this individual's gut as they realized that Raven may have been attracted to Fox. 'But I don't like Raven like… okay, lying to others is wrong, lying to yourself is just pathetic. But if she likes him, what can I do?'

No one noticed Inari sniff the air in this individual's direction, before subtly nudging Jim. No one noticed Fox's eyes flash for a moment behind his mirrored lenses before a thoughtful expression crossed his face for a fleeting second.

And, no one noticed a lithe, shadowy figure drop to the ground on the other side of the Titan's island, a belt draped over his shoulder, a red X-shaped mark decorating the buckle.