I wished Richard and I could just get over everything in the past. Was I the one holding that possibility back? I knew I was stubborn sometimes and unwilling, but I never knew I so…me.

And I hated it.

I hated my beauty, because I always felt cheated when men only looked at my face and not my personality. I hated how I fell so hard for Richard Grayson and I hated how he knew.

A week had passed since our night at the café. There were times when I saw him and he would walk hurriedly past me. And then there were times when he saw me, tried to talk to me, and I walked past him. As for Michael, there were times when we saw each other and I completely ignored him. I noticed that Richard was doing the same. It was a system that seemed to work for all three of us.

Since he had given me the most sincere apology the week before, I had been thinking of him. I finally got up the nerve to approach him. On the way to the elevator, I caught up to him as quickly as I could. I had the pressing urge to talk to him all of a sudden. I didn't want to avoid him anymore.

As soon as I stepped in, the doors closed. It was awkward. There were three people standing behind us. I could feel them practically boring their eyes into our faces. Damn gossipers.

From the corner of my eye I saw him turn towards me. "Hey," he said in his warm, smooth voice.

"Hi."

His voice was husky and cool, collected as always. Mine came out as a small murmur. I thought I sounded like a mouse.

I faced him, making eye contact for the longest time since we had seen each other. I had never really taken the time to take a good look at his change. I felt my heart jump a little at the way he looked. Older, sadder, and even more handsome. His face was still slightly heart shaped. Strong, square jaw; rounded forehead; squared-off cheekbones. But when I looked harder and longer, I saw many unexpected things, deeper things. His eyes for instance. They were still blue, but a very unrecognizable blue, one that had turned gray almost. His mouth was a lovely mouth.

He stared at me too, but not the same way I stared at him. Oh God, what if he thought I was crazy? I shook myself out of my trance instantly.

"You busy tonight?" he asked me. His blue eyes were filled with hope.

I shook my head. "No." I tried to stop a knowing smile from forming on my face. He was going to ask me out!

Wait…this was supposed to be a bad thing…

"Wanna get a drink?" he asked more casually.

I thought about it for a moment. I pictured myself drinking beside him, laughing and talking like things were still normal. What would this mean? Would this mean that we were friends again? Maybe this was a chance for us to smooth everything out in the open. But then again, it was another way for us to spark something that didn't need to be sparked.

I made the decision not to go. But my voice betrayed me.

I simply nodded my head. "Sure."

We stepped out of the elevator and caught a cab that drove us to a bar a few blocks down the street from G&W. It was a strange place to me. I had only been into a bar a few times with Raven and Gar this year. It was all Gar's idea.

We sat ourselves down in one of the booths and ordered our drinks. We sat still.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah?"

"How did you feel when you found out you had to work with me?" he asked me. I remembered that he was earnest and deep. It was something I had always liked about him.

"I was surprised and I didn't like it," I admitted honestly. "I didn't realize that you'd be here."

"I knew you would be." He cleared his throat. "Here, I mean."

"You did?"

"They send the job applications to me for approval before they give them to Michael. It says that at the bottom of the application forms."

"Oh." I cursed myself for not reading the form more thoroughly. I hated forms, especially when they asked things like Mother's name, Father's name, Mother's maiden name, because I never had names to fill in the spaces. Between college and my career, I had filled out far too many of them.

So he'd known. I hadn't, obviously. What if I had known? Would I still have come? Would I have willingly tossed myself into a life full of Richard Grayson, breaker of hearts and minds? Probably not. I felt like I had suffered the most from the break-up.

He looked at me. He was thinking how to say what he was going to say next. "When I saw your application, I didn't know what to do. I couldn't have you at G&W, with everybody always whispering. I was about to reject it. But I knew that you deserved more, and that you would come here stronger, better than I remembered you."

"Oh," I said again, dumbly. I couldn't register what I was feeling.

"I wasn't sure you'd come again after you saw me," he said.

"I wasn't either."

"I'm glad you did," he added. He did look happy, and also uncertain. He was looking at me in a different way.

His eyes on me were different. I couldn't say why. "And why is that?"

"Because I wouldn't have gotten stuck in that elevator with you and we wouldn't be getting drunk here right now." He flashed his gleaming smile. I tried not to be too dazed.

I smiled nervously and laughed. "Wow."

"Dating anybody?" He did look curious, in a way, but also anxious. He was looking at me in a different way.

"I did, for a while," I stated a matter-of-factly.

He made a face.

"But then I started to focus on my career more."

He made another face again, one that confused me. Was he surprised? Was he happy? Was he sorry?

We spent another two hours at Joe's, the name of the bar. The bartender had to drive out a couple of paparazzi, one of them confessing to have followed us from work. Richard walked me to my building and all the way up to the penthouse door.

I took out my keys. I looked up at him one more time. I felt shy again.

"I need to talk to you about something." He took hold of my hand. "Can we go inside?"

I gave him a purely skeptical look. "Sure," I said uncertainly.

I opened the door to hear the TV. I walked to our cozy den to find Raven and Garfield lounging on the couch together in front of the TV. Gar was lying on Raven's lap, practically snoring his head off. But Raven was still wide-awake, and when she saw us she raised an eyebrow. I had almost forgotten that Richard was behind me.

"This is interesting," she said monotonously with sarcasm, and then she turned her attention back to the TV. She stared at our hands. I forgot that we were still holding hands. My eyes widened in horror and I instantly yanked my hand from Richard's.

I took Richard to the balcony. We stood over the rail, silently. I gazed off into the city. He put his hands on my shoulders and turned me gently to face him. His eyes were serious and grave.

I looked at him with worried eyes. "What is it? You scaring me now."

"It's your sister. Koma."

I looked at him skeptically. "Koma? But Koma's dead…"

They had found Koma's body washed ashore on one of the beaches along the European coast two years ago. They never specified where, which seemed oddly suspicious at the time, but other than that they made every other detail clear.

"Your sister is very alive. And she wants you dead."

My mind went blank. I looked at his mouth moving, but I had no idea what he was talking about. I did not disguise this. I kept my eyes closed, still trying to breath properly. I hoped I was having another one of those bad dreams. But when I opened my eyes, he was still looking at me, his hands were still holding my shoulders, and he was still waiting for me to respond.

I chose not to believe it. "You're lying. They found Koma's body a couple years ago."

"Kori, you have to trust me. I have new leads. She may be working with somebody, but we don't know who."

It was silent. All of a sudden the noisy cars below us were roaring in my ear, and the words coming out of his mouth were a blur. Sighing frustratingly, I put my hand to my forehead weakly and took a seat on the chair nearby.

"So Koma's alive. It's not true. Galfore told me four years ago and it's still not true. Now what do you want with me?" I asked, suddenly annoyed.

"I want to keep you safe. Protect you."

I kept my eyes closed, still trying to breath properly. "What? I…can't. I won't let you do it."

"I have to protect you, Kori. I don't have a choice."

I faced him with a sudden rage. Those words triggered every remorseful memory I had with him. "Don't you think you've protected me enough? You protected me in the past, and look at what it's done to us. I don't this to happen. Ever."

"Like I said, I don't have a choice."

I looked at him with somber eyes and uncrossed my arms. "You always have a choice. Everybody always has a choice. Why don't you have one?"

"Because I was hired…" His voice trailed off. It had a weird sound of longing in it, but he soon cleared his throat. "…By Galfore. She's stronger than ever. She will kill you as soon as she gets the chance to."

"How do you know that?"

"The fortune. You're the heir to it. She's killed your parents for it and now she wants to kill you for it. We have a few men from G&W protecting your uncle as well."

His words were numbing. I got up from my chair and walked slowly to the balcony. At that moment I felt like jumping off so badly. How could Koma have killed my parents? We were so young then, and I knew she wasn't capable of doing such a thing.

"But Koma was only twenty when that happened. She…she must have been under some kind of influence."

"She was. Do you remember Xavier?"

Instantly my hand went to my lips. Richard's face became even harder than it already was. I nodded. I couldn't speak. By the end of this conversation, I was probably going to be paralyzed with shock.

"When you met him, he wasn't eighteen. He was nineteen, and he graduated a year before we did. He was your sister's boyfriend and was working for Slade when he convinced your sister to run away with him," he explained.

"So where is Koma now?"

"I imagine she's working for Slade as well. With Xavier."

"He's…he's not dead yet, is he?"

I looked at his fist resting on the table. He sat still in his seat. His face showed no emotion, and he turned his head to the side so I wouldn't see it. But his fist was curled up in a ball so tight his knuckles were literally turning white.

"No. He's here, in Gotham. And he's looking for you."

Suddenly I felt weak. I thought instantly of the caped man who had saved me in the alley way almost two months ago. He was wearing a red suit. Could that have been Xavier? I had thought of my mysterious savior after he rescued me. I had thought of seeing him again, being held by him again, being close to him again. I would have died if I knew I was thinking of Xavier.

"Me?" My voice sounded more like a little squeak. "You mean I could have possibly run into him?"

"What do you mean?" He turned his head slightly, only allowing me to see his profile.

"A couple of months ago, I ran into a gang in the alleyway when I tried taking a shortcut from work. They were…uh, shoving me around until this guy in a really dark red suit came and fought them off."

I didn't want to upset Richard. So I kept a few details out. I couldn't tell what he was thinking.

"It could be him; I don't know. I only saw him once passing our building and I let him get away." Richard sighed exasperatedly, running his fingers through his jet-black hair out of habit. It was silent after that.

I walked him out from the terrace through the double doors. We passed the living room again, but this time both Raven and Beastboy were asleep. I sighed with relief. Before I opened the door I paused and looked at him.

"I'll let you watch over me," I said boldly, "On one condition."

"What?"

"I want to help you." There was still an uncertainty in my voice that I hoped Richard wouldn't notice. "Wherever you go, I go."

He did, of course. But he remained silent for a little bit.

"Are you sure? I don't want you getting hurt…again."

I sensed a double meaning in his words. When he said "hurt", did he mean physically or emotionally?

"Don't worry," I said, opening the door and letting him out, "I won't."

There was no uncertainty in my voice this time.

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The next morning, I woke up feeling…different. I could hear the birds singing instead of the traffic below me. Our dining chairs felt soft and cushiony instead of hard. I had made my own breakfast this morning.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Raven had asked. I simply nodded and went upstairs to my room.

It was Wednesday. That meant another boring meeting in the staff room, another assignment to cover, and another article to write. It also meant seeing Richard. But I didn't fret like I usually did. I didn't mind anymore. I felt like wearing something other than a pencil skirt or slacks.

I walked through the conference room doors in a simple dark green dress and equally simple black pumps. No earrings or no jewelry at all, and my hair was let down without any grooming- just as simple as I could get. But yet as I walked in to take my seat, I could feel the hungry stares of the men sitting nearby and the envious looks that the women gave as they glanced at me. Even Gene stopped what he was doing to stare for a few seconds.

I tried not to look at Richard. I could feel him glancing at me occasionally. But soon enough, almost like two magnets, my gaze met with his familiar pair of blue eyes. I looked away quickly and began to pay attention to Gene.

"…So as you know, the Meeting of Circle Internationals is coming up. For those of you that don't know," he explained, making a point of looking at me, "This only happens once every five years. Twenty of the most influential business leaders of the world come together to discuss the business world, along with ten of their staff members."

Everybody in the room nodded stupidly in unison almost like little bobble heads.

"Most of you have gotten the opportunity to experience this. But they changed the rules this year. Now only one person can accompany their leader to the meeting. This year it's going to be in Paris for three days."

The room was filled with excited murmurs. I was torn apart. Going to Paris and this meeting would be the greatest thing ever. But then again, if I went, I would have to be with Richard almost 24/7.

"Now everybody vote for who you think deserves to go. And no voting for yourselves, little smart-asses out there."

We all chuckled, but after a few seconds the laughter died down. I was sure that no one would vote for me. I was still considered the new girl. I had made a few friends, but even if they all voted for me I still wouldn't win. Smirking, I voted purposely for Michael. I knew Richard hated him now after the night in the café.

We passed our little slips of paper back up to the front to Gene. We all sat there, antsy and ready for answers.

Gene picked up one slip. "Violet …"

I caught her flashing a seductive smirk at Richard, who ignored it. I laughed to myself.

"Michael…"

That was probably my vote. I looked at Michael. He looked surprised that someone had actually voted for him.

"Ross…Violet, again…"

I didn't even bother to look at Violet. Was every girl in this building dying to get into Richard's arms?

"Anders…"

I had been looking around the room when Gene said my name. My head shot up.

"Kori," he said again.

He picked up another piece of paper. "Kori Anders…"

And another. "Anders…"

Was this some kind of sick joke? I could hear everybody in the room whispering and snickering. It wasn't funny to me. I was about to beat some people up any minute now. Come to think of it, there was an alley across the street…

"…And lastly, Anders," he said exasperatingly. "Wow. I didn't know Miss Anders had so many friends."

I tried to look happy. My smile wobbled.

"So Anders, you won and you're going to Paris. You and Grayson are scheduled to board your plane tomorrow morning, so get packing. Meeting dismissed."

Everybody got up from their seats with different expressions on their faces. Violet looked like she wanted to shoot me. Michael looked sad. Everybody else looked like they had just played the best prank ever. And then there was Richard. He looked…silent. It was awkward.

What was wrong with these people? Were they trying to piss me off? I curled up my fists and gritted my teeth hard. I was going to tell everybody what I thought of them. Violet, with her sluty little smile. Juan, with his white tuxedo. I mean, who wore those things nowadays? And Johnny, the office pervert who kept on giving me looks during meetings. I was too angry to think about what I was going to do next.

I stomped over to the doors where everybody was making their way to. I couldn't believe I was going to do this. I could feel the fire blazing in my eyes, and my pearly whites gritted in everyone's faces.

But then I spotted a smile that Richard was trying to hide on his face. He was laughing. He knew I was going to do this. He was probably expecting me to make a fool of myself. So I stopped myself. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of my humiliation.

I sighed, cooled myself down, and walked out the conference room like everybody else did. But two seconds after everybody walked out of the room, one comment caught my ear.

"-Anders will be thanking us when they get back from that trip." It was one of the guys that sat across me. Matt, I think.

"It's too bad though. I don't think she's tough enough. I think that's why Grayson dumped her. You know how he likes them feisty."

It was that comment right there. I slowly turned my head around and made eye contact with Johnny. He stood there at first, with a kind of scared look on his face, and then a smirk.

I stormed over to where he was and until my nose was about two inches way from his. "Do you want to take that back?" I said darkly. For a second I saw a flash of worry spark in his eyes.

But he just shook it off and laughed. He looked at me with a mischievous look, one that was almost too inviting. "Listen baby, I don't want to hurt a pretty little thing like you. Why don't you just come with me and we'll-"

From the corner of my eye, I could see Richard's His eyes were darkening, his face flushed with anger. Mine was too. I could feel my self-confidence suddenly boost. I grabbed the collar of his shirt and thrust him hard into the wall. I held him with a strength I never knew I had.

There was a dramatic gasp in the room. It was almost like one of those high school fights, where everybody crowded around the two people who were fighting to see if they had the guts to hit each other.

"Am I tough enough now?" I said, tilting my head to the side. There was a dead silence.

For a second his lower jaw trembled and he couldn't even utter a word out. "O-okay, okay!" he spat out. "J-just…just put me down!"

I released my grip on Johnny and he fell to the floor.

I turned around and looked at the crowd. Some of the guys stood there, their jaws dropping all the way to the floor. And then some guys looked at me in a different way, like they wanted me even more. The girls stared at me like I was Oprah. Obviously I wasn't the only one who was bothered by Johnny.

I looked at the wall. There was a dent the same exact shape of Johnny's body.

I stood there to the point where I couldn't stand standing. I cleared my throat and announced softly, "I'll, um, be in my office if anyone needs me."

People were still standing and staring. For a second I started to become angry again. Didn't they learn their lesson from Johnny?

I kept on walking. Everybody made way for me in fear, and as I was walking my shoulder brushed Richard's. I turned my head and our eyes met.

He was trying to stifle a laugh, I could tell. There was an old smirk on his face, just like the good old times we had before. A small smile curved on the ends of my mouth, and then I turned my head away again and made my way through the crowd.

When I got to my office I plopped down onto my chair and swiveled around it a couple of times. For a minute I felt free, like I was released into the wild or something. Then it suddenly dawned onto me that I made a dent in a white marble wall by slamming a guy into it.

Oh, X'hal.

What if I got fired? They probably all thought I needed anger management.

Work became peaceful the rest of the day, and I was totally thankful for that. I never stepped out of my office and spent four hours typing on my keyboard.

It was four when I clocked out of work. I walked down the stairs (that's right, all 99 stories), which took me about an hour at my fast rate. I couldn't wait to go home and pack my things. I was practically skipping down the stairs.

When I stepped out of the building, Richard was waiting for me right outside the revolving doors. I gave him a questioning look as he fell into step with me.

"How long have you been waiting out here for me?" I lowered my lashes without thinking.

"A couple hours since you almost beat Johnny up."

His face was very distracting; I couldn't help but steal a glance at it. He was looking at me, almost eye to eye, with that same smirk. His eyes still held coldness.

"Oh, God. Don't remind me of that," I groaned. "I just really lost my temper there. You should see how he looks at me."

"I have," Richard muttered darkly under his breath. I wasn't sure if he was talking to himself or me.

We kept on walking. I didn't know where, but I honestly didn't care. The building was only a few blocks away from my house, so we reached my building within minutes. We stopped when we reached the door.

"Wow. You waited for me for two hours just so you could walk me home?" I asked, a smile forming on my face. I didn't want to make it look like I was actually enjoying his presence. Was I? I had to think about that tonight.

"That's what friends do, right?"

Friends? Were we really?

I knew he didn't expect anything from me. It was the type of person he was. If I had rejected him and said that we weren't friends, he would have turned around with only a single goodbye and walk home.

"Yes," I said finally. He looked rather fascinated by what I just said, for some strange reason I couldn't imagine.

"So I guess I'll see you tomorrow?" he said in his cool breezy voice.

"I guess so." I was smiling at him. Not because of the memory of him. It was because he was really here, smiling that crooked, dazzling smile just the way I liked it.

I could really get used to this.

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Author's Note: Please review this chapter! Oh, and just a curious question: When do some of you guys go on fanfiction? Lol Sometimes I go on at midnight and my friend thinks it's weird. : Peace!

-sTaRfIrExrObIn