A new chapter OMG! I read and reread chapter one a million times and I don't know how I made so many mistakes! My bad I'll try harder this time.

Disclaimer-If I owned Teen Titans...I'd be a lot cooler than I am.

-"Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it,

like my heart's going to cave in." American Beauty, 1999.-

Dick laid on his bed breathing in the familiar smells. Burma was nice, but nothing beats coming home. Besides between all the meetings and security measure he found no time to relax at all. He'd just gotten in an hour ago, around ten or so, and he had to go meet Raven in an hour. For him, work never ended. It was like once one long unbearable week ended, bam another smacked him before he had a chance to recover. This internship meant the world to Dick, and a little exhaustion was going to stop him.

He rolled over on his side. He felt jet lagged and was having a hard time getting to sleep. "Screw this." he said getting up. He slowly scuffled into the kitchen and made a cup of coffee. As the hot liquid licked his senses, Dick realized it was the most relax he'd been in so long. "Wow, I must have no real life if I find coffee relaxing." Dick rolled his eyes, at himself. He leaned against the kitchen counter and caught a glimpse of himself in the reflection of the glass doors. He did not recognize himself. His eyes were baggy, his hair dishelmed, he needed to shave.

Dick groaned he couldn't even keep up with a hair cut. Then phone rang distracting Dick from anymore physical loathing. "Hello." he said groggily.

"Dick.. can we... meet in like.. two hours please." Raven said. She sounded like she was coughing violently.

"Are you alright?" Dick said sounding alarmed. Raven coughed a little more. Dick fell into a chair and rested his head on the counter. The phone was making an annoying buzz noise, like it was breaking up. "Rae, are you OK?"

"I'm fine." she said. Now she sounded like she was even more tired than Dick was. "Can we meet in later." she said

"Are you sure your alright? You sound really exhausted." He said with gentle concern ringing in his tone.

"I'm fine!" she snapped." I was up all night going over the eleven interviews in did these past five days, excuse me for being just a little tired!" Dick whispered "yes' before hanging up the phone. This was better for both of them. They were both tired and needed a few hours to sleep. He flipped open the newspaper. More shit about the rich, stupid heiress.

"There are wars in other countries, and I'm suppose to care that bitch is going to jail for three weeks?" Dick said outraged. "Bullshit." Dick had enough of the pointless shit the news reported everyday. He rested his head atop of the paper. And immediately drifted off to sleep.

"What the hell do you expect me to do? I worked my fucking ass off for this for two fucking years!" he appeared to be yelling at a tall silhouette, far in the distance. He tried to approach the figure, but no matter how fast he ran he couldn't catch up to it. It wasn't moving but he wasn't getting closer. The scenery was like a white box. Dick's footsteps echoed into the box. Finally the figure seemed to be going forward in ghostly movements. It wasn't moving, but it was going forward. "No! Wait!" Dick yelled after the figure, but it melted into sand and blew away in the wind.

Dick awoke with a start. His face was sweaty and his breathing was heavy. Dick shook off the strangeness of the dream, there was about the dream that was eerie. Dick looked at the clock. 12:23. He had to meet Raven in thirty-six minutes. "Shit." he cursed to himself, as he ran off to take a shower.

Dick rode the elevator to Raven's apartment very nervous. He was at least twenty minutes late, and by her tone this morning, she did not sound like she was in the mood for any of his tardiness. Raven's apartment was nice, she used to share it with her fiancé, until they broke up. Everyone who lived there worked too much to spend so much on their lease, when they were hardly ever there. Whenever Dick came over he never saw a trace that anyone else even lived there. It was eerily silent. The elevator let him off on the second floor.

Dick walked down the empty hallway. He approached apartment twelve and knocked, and got no answer. "Rae?" he yelled into the door. He got nothing. Dick looked around, and made sure no one was watching him. He set down his brief case, and jumped up. He reached his hand on the top of the door frame, and knocked the tiny silver key over. She really needed to hide her key somewhere else. Dick slipped the key in the hole, and was automatically by the sound of Steven Tyler's voice.

Dick looked around and Raven was nowhere in sight. There were large boxes scattered everywhere marked. M's stuff. "Raven?" Dick called he started to move around towards to back of her apartment. "Rae?" he said quietly. He started to hear the sound of things being thrown into a box. He entered Raven's bedroom, but stopped in the door way. He knew better than to go into Raven's room. Once you went in you might never come out, with all your limbs. Her closet door, which slid open, was opened, and her legs were dangling from the top of the closet. The rest of her was out of sight. Under her legs, were a step ladder, and a box that lay the left side of her.

Raven had an attic above her closet, and when she and Malcolm broke up, she banished all his things up there. Then Raven stepped off the ladder. She turned and saw Dick and jumped back.

"Holy shit, are you trying to give me a heart attack.". Dick rubbed the back of his head. Raven threw in a little more stuff in to the box, before casually kicking it into the corner. "How did you get in here?" Raven asked folding up the ladder.

"You really must find a new place to find this." Dick said holding up the key, grinning. Raven walked over to him and snatched the key from his hand. She placed on the night stand next to her bed, then picked up a large pile of folders. She handed them to Dick, and lead him away from her room, and into the living room. She shut off the stereo in the kitchen. "Trying to distract yourself? What, there wasn't enough work to be done?"

Raven turned to Dick, and shook her head. "I don't know what you mean." she said quietly. Dick just stood there with the same expression on his face. "So what, I can't listen to Aerosmith without there being a crisis in my life?" Raven took the folders back from Dick and dumped them on the coffee table. "I interviewed a lot of different companies and as you know I think our best bet is with StarFire. Inc." she said picking up the first folder on top of the pile "They have a revolutionary plan based off trends of today. It's different, it's today, it's an all around good idea."

"I don't know, Raven." Dick sounded unsure. "They have very little experience in this type of profession. I don't know if Wayne Enterprises is ready to start in the restaurant biz."

"C'mon, name one a-list celebrity or socialite who is starving themselves, or taken unnecessary dieting pills. Losing weight is part of the shallowness that has invaded our world. This has a chance to become, not only a restaurant but a whole empire of gyms and diet plan books, and it's healthy and nothing is dangerous about it. How would it look if Wayne enterprises were part of the first healthy, popular, effective new craze?" Raven said.

"You know what I saw everyone else's idea's they suck. I like this, I'm going with this." He said finally happy with his decision.

"I knew you would." Raven said.

"It's been two days and we haven't heard from them, I knew it. They found some big huge idea that's way better than ours'." Kory said as she paced around their studio.

"Hey Kory I just got a call from a girl named Lulu she wants us to cater at her wedding, it's a green wedding." Gar said putting the phone on his shoulder. Kory looked at him wide eyed, and mouthed "no". "We will get back to you." Gar said before hanging up the phone. "Kory we're late on our rent, we need money."

Kory was now outraged. For the past three days while Kory worried day and night whether they'd get a call from Raven, Garfield made it no better. He slouched around the house, and would scowl every time Kory even mentioned the interview. Tensions between them was thick enough to cut with a knife. "So that's it? Your throwing in the towel! It's only been a couple days!"

"Kor," he shouted sitting up from the couch "We don't need them we can find someone else. Someone more...legit."

"More legit than Wayne Enterprises! It's not like she personally ruined your life, she wasn't even representing herself for Roth Inc., she was under Wayne freakin' Enterprises! You know how much this means to me, how could you beal on me now?" Kory yelled tears, slicing down her face. She'd been holding all this in, for the past two days, and something inside her just snapped. Gar's face soften.

"Kory, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it, I'm not mad at you. Hell, I'm not even mad about the deal, it just..." Gar stopped and sighed. He searched his mind for the perfect words to describe how low he was feeling these days.

"Gar what's wrong?" Kory said softly sitting next to him and putting her arm around his shoulder.

Gar sighed again "The day we went to that interview, I went to see Terra and... she dumped me." Kory was shocked. "She said the I was a dead beat loser and that I would never amount to anything or do anything useful, and I was a waste of sperm and egg." Kory couldn't believe the things Terra had said. They'd been together for a year now. Kory never liked Terra, there was something really mistrusting about her. None the less they seemed good for each other. This was just shocking.

"Gar I'm so, very-" Kory was interrupted by ringing of the phone. She gave Gar a look that was pleading him to let her answer the phone. Gar rolled his eyes. Kory picked up the phone her heart was beating, and her ears were ringing with excitement that was not disguised by her voice. "Hello?"

"Hi Kory, this is Raven I am just calling to let you know that Dick has made is his decision on who he wants to meet Bruce." her voice was calm. Kory had this picture of her sitting in some huge office with her feet up on the desk This was it the moment of truth. Kory felt her stomach twinge with nervousness. "Congratulations, he has decided to go with your company."

Kory felt her stomach twinge again. All she could do was stop her mouth from dropping open. "So he wants to meet with you and your partner on Saturday at his house." Raven continued "Is that alright?"

Kory was still in her state of shock and it didn't automatically register in her mind. "Oh, yeah that's fine." Kory stood up and found and pen and piece of paper.

"His address is at The Château Ellise, apartment thirty, on Modeson Ave. Alright I look forward to seeing you there." Raven said

"Bye." Kory said. She turned to Gar a patted the side of her hips, with the biggest smile anyone's ever seen before. "They want us!" she whispered. Gar jumped up, grabbed Kory's arm's and they both started jumping up and down like maniacs. "They want us to go to his house for dinner on Saturday."

Gar groaned. What a way to kill the moment. "I'm getting sick of business dinners." he said "I can't wait to go back to pizza."

"Well, get use to it because when this deal goes through we're going to be going to a lot of them."

Saturday 8:19 PM

Dick always became obsessed with cleaning and cooking when ever guest came over. He spent all of yesterday night scrubbing his penthouse down with a toothbrush, all this morning at the grocery store, and all that afternoon preparing to food to entertain his guest. He didn't dress up. He spent must of his life in a tux or business suit. Tonight he was in the comfort of his own home, so he dressed casually. Four flute glasses of champagne, sat on a silver tray, next to the bottle, on his now glossy and polished counter. The sounds of Beethoven's fifth, lightly mooded the scenery.

Dick's apartment was very classy. Like a scene out of the pianist. Everything was beige, and statues of geek gods decorated the rooms. It was pretty nice. The beige curtain in the lodge shaped living room were extremely large, and drawn back. The view was perfect, and it majestified all of Manhattan. The world was below them. The gorgeous light, and night life of New York seemed small and distant, like the rush of the world was underground. This was the very reason Dick bought the place, to escape from everyday life.

He heard very faintly the door bell ring. He used the remote the turn the volume down. He swiftly whisked to the door. He pulled the down open to find a stunning, drop dead gorgeous, red head with a plain little black dress standing in front of his door. He tried his best not to stare but, this girl was like an Amazon goddess.

"Hi, you must be Dick." she said sticking her hand out. "I'm Kory Anders and this is my partner Garfield Logan." she said pulling a small blonde man into view. Dick accepted the hand shake.

"It's a great pleasure to meet you two." he said "Please come in." he said stepping aside letting and allowing his guest to enter. When they got inside Kory and Gar were awed. It was beautiful and a lot nicer than anything they'd ever seen before.

"I saw a hotel room like this once." Gar whispered to Kory but Kory was too bust gazing at Dick's apartment as if it were some sort of museum. Dick shut the door, and ran his fingers through his hair. It was a bad habit, he did when we was nervous or in an awkward scenario.

"So this is my place." He said. There was a slight waver in his voice. Kory ran her hand over the long wood table, nicely decorated with a silver table runner, and four plate arrangement. Kory assumed Raven would be joining them later. "So, while we wait for Raven, who for some reason is incapable time getting anywhere on time besides work, why don't we make ourselves acquaintance."

Kory nodded and took a seat on the right side of the table. Gar sat across from her and Dick sat at the head of the table. No one said anything for a long, awkward moment. During that moment Dick ran his fingers through his hair several times. "So, is this what you guys talk about at the office all day?" Gar said collecting chuckles from everyone.

"I guess I didn't realize how awful I was at small talk. Raven is always the ice breaker." Gar glanced up at Dick, then swore under his breath. Luckily Dick didn't notice. Kory shot him an irritating glare at him. "So tell me about yourselves."

"Well, we met about seven years ago when we were seniors in high school. I was the shy nerdy girl, and Gar... he was just nerdy. So know the whole high school thing, outcast we really didn't have friends, just each other. Then I went a community college but dropped out after like one year, because it wasn't my passion. I was into culinary arts so Gar and I teamed up and used all of our savings to fund StarFire Inc. And the rest as they sat is history." Kory said rather pleasantly.

Gar cleared his throat and said "I resent being called nerdy. I wasn't nerdy, I was just...flamboyant."

Kory smiled at him."What about you?" she said to Dick.

"Oh, I don't like talking about myself. I end up sounding like some show off who's trying to impress people." Dick said. Right before another uncomfortable silence the door bell rang. "I'll go get that." he said jumping up to get the door. Of course it was Raven. She walked in and greeted everyone. She was wearing a black button up blouse and jeans, which made Kory feel overdressed.

"What did I miss?" she said sitting in the chair opposite from Dick.

"We just getting to know each other." Dick said "Your turn." Raven crossed her fingers, and thought of something to say.

"Hm, let's see." she started "I was born, my father sent me to boarding school, until I was twelve then my mother took me back and here I am today twelve years later." she said quickly.

"O...K." Gar said

"Raven, after twenty-four years of life that's your biography?" Dick said. Raven didn't say anything, this was the sign that he should drop it, and drop it he did. "Well, now that we're all here we can get down to buisness." Everyone groaned. "You know what I think we're all sick of buisness, let's just talk or something, it's a good night for everyone, we'll talk lawyer some other day." Dick wondered if the champagne was getting to him, he was never good at holding his alcohol.

"Alright," Gar said "I know we'll play the question game. You can ask anyone any question. If they choose not to answer they take a shot."

This made Dick and Raven slightly uncomfortable. Their dirty laundry was especially dirty. The kind that they'd kill to keep under the radar. But if they wanted this deal they had to get Kory and Gar to trust them. Personally Raven thought this was some clever plot for Gar to get her to spill her gut, but Raven would rather get drunk than anyone find out her secrets.

"Raven," Gar said slyly "What the craziest thing you did as a teen?"

Raven gave her champagne glass a quick glance, then pushed it forward. "When I was seventeen I was in an..." Raven's voice trailed off as she mumbled something. Everyone looked at her. "What was that?" Dick said

"I was in an Aerosmith video!" she said. Everyone gasped. Kory laughed, Dick had that smug looking grin on his face that Raven dispised, and Gar was cracking up. Raven sighed and shook her head again.

"Which one?"

"You said one question." Raven said with a small smile. "Maybe next round. Kory you seem sweet as apple pie, and America loves apple pie, so tell us what's the baddest thing you've ever done?"

"Oo." Dick and Gar said at the same time. Kory searched her brain for an answer, but it didn't come. She couldn't think of one bad thing she'd ever done. Kory shook her head. "Nothing."

"Nothing?" Raven repaeted a little surprised "C'mon every good girl has that one bad thing she's done. Rob a bank, start a horrible rumor, kill someone?" This time Kory thought long and hard about it. She went back to the days when it was her and her sister, Blair. One day Blair, had stolen money from her. Kory had been saving that money for months, so she decided to get back at her...

"OK, I've got it." she said happily. Dick and Gar were at the edge of their seats. There was a long pause, and Kory opened her mouth. She then grabbed her glass and swallowed the champagne.Dick and Gar both booed. "This ones for Dick. Tell us something we don't know about you. And not some fifth grade secret like boxers or briefs."

"Bruce Wayne is my adoptive father." he said, his voice uncaring. Everyone gasped except Raven, who far knew this.

"Shut up." were the only words that Kory could muster.

"No, really." he said

"Then why do this internship? Can't you just-" Kori started. Dick flashed her a glare (there was a lot of that going on that night), but he quickly shook it off. On the rare occassion people did find out about him and Bruce, they would always ask why would he do the internship. The answer was Dick waould definately never be satisfied. He needed to know he was the best, and that he deserved to be the director. He couldn't live wondering if there was someone out there better than him. Someone who deserved this job. Besides like Raven, Dick had been sent to boarding school. He knew Bruce did it out of love and concern, but Dick still felt resentment towards Bruce. In high school Dick started acting out, a big disappoitment to Bruce. Dick did feel bad about it. This way he could redeem himself, and make Bruce proud of him.

"Uh, that's another question little lady. Some other time." Dick interrupted smiling at Kory. To his delight she smiled back. Dick rimmed the edge of his half full glass and circled the rim. "Gar, if you could have one night with any girl, no strings attached who would it be?"

Gar contemplated this question carefully. Normally he'd jump right out of his seat and say some innocent, good girl, sexy, celebrity like Jessica Alba but today there was something different. He looked up at Kory and then his attention turned to Raven. At that very moment her gorgeous eyes sparkled like two limpid pools of amethyst colored sunshine, that shone through the window of his heart, and the eyes of his soul. It was at that very second he let go of all his unjust hostility and anger towards her. It was that moment he fell in love with her. "J-Jessica..Alba." he said half heartedly. He wanted nothing more than to swallow the whole bottle of champagne. "Raven, what's your deepest darkest secret. Something you would never ever tell anyone?" he asked

Raven immediately picked up her glass, and swallowed the champagne. "Your not getting information out of me that easily." Raven raised her eye at Gar. "What about...any one night stands?"

Gar laughed. "Why are all my questions about sex and one night stands? But, no I'm not a date-em-and-dump- em kind of guy. I'd rather find and intelligent girl with conversation and personality and keep her around for awhile, than find a hot, easy girl. I mean what are we going to do stare at each other?"

Raven looked at him like she was surprised. She lightly pressed her tongue on the inside of her gum. "Huh."

"Dick, how many times have watched a...dirty movie?"

"You mean like a porno? Never." Dick said. Most men wouldn't believe him, but if he was lying he was doing a damn good job of it.

"Really?" Kory said sounding really impressed. "No playboys, or... anything."

"Call me old fashioned, nut I could never promote something that degraded and demeaned women. Men making money off of the opposite sex, by disrespecting them. It's gross." Dick said. he was the type of guy who was so manly, he could say anything without fear of it making him insecure in his masculenity. He really was a guys' guy.

This made Kory very impressed. She thought very highly of him. And hot for him, not sexually but mentally. She'd never met a man who would rather treat a women with respect than have to prove something to the boys. Suddenly there was a beedping noise coming from the kitchen. "That's dinner, I hope you like fillet minion, and baked sweet potatos." Dick said throwing his napkin off of his lap and standing up.

"Mister Grayson where do you find the time to learn to cook?" Kory said in a sweet, slightly sarcastic tone.

Dick picked up his glass and swallowed the contents. "I would tell you but it's my turn to ask the questions."

After dinner, which was delicious, while Dick was giving Kory the grand tour Raven picked up all the dishes and began on washing them. Gar watched her curiously. "Do you always wash Dick's dishes?" he asked leaning back in his chair

Raven gave a small laugh while she rolled up her sleeve. "Dick is a big boy he can do his own chores, it's just it's been a long week and after tonight he's going to be too tired to do the dishes. It's my job as his manager to make sure he takes care of himself and I love Dick he's like a brother to me. I worry some times he has too much on his plate. I just try my hardest to make sure his job is as easy as I can make."

"What about you? Doesn't making Dick's job easier for him make it harder for you?" Gar asked

Raven dried a plate she was holding and neatly placed it on the cabinet. "It does get very stressful for me especially since... well that's just it, Dick's job is like rocket science if I were a waitress. I want him to get this job just as much as he does, and to get on top takes a lot of sacrifice. I'm more than willing to do my fair share of work as long as Dick doesn't lose it and screw it up for both of us. And when he does get this job I'm so getting a raise." Raven said

"So, your his assitant manger? Like his personal assistant?" Gar said blushing slightly. Raven shook the excess water of of the forks.

"I'm like his partner, except I don't get half or anywhere near what he's making, and I'm the one who makes sure everything goes smoothly."

Raven dried her hands off and sat down in a chair, next to Gar. Her long fingger slid down the edge of the table. Gar watched her every movement as she made everything look so graceful. Her head tilted as her hands moved. It's funny how quickly you could go from hating someone and falling in love with them.

Meanwhile Dick was out on the balcony with Kory watching the city light. She leaned over the edge, while straddled a lawn chair. It was silent, well as silent as the city is at night. They didn't talk much, but they could speak with their minds and that was all they needed. It was weird how they both felt, since they'd just mey two and a half hours ago.

" I have never seen such a view." Kory said staring admirable into the distance. "I always dreamed of living in the city." Kory turned towards Dick and rested her elbows on the ledge of the banister. "You know I grew up in the country side. It was small and boring. There's was nothing to do but go to school and raise the pigs.

"You raised pigs?" Dick said surpressing his laughter. Kory smiled at him, and laughed.

"I know, hard to believe I did farm work. But I was always afraid of living the way my parents did. Live in the same small town for my whole life, with the same people. Then I'd marry my first boyfriend when I was seventeen, whom my parents choose for me. And I'd never see anywhere, or do anything. I mean how do you know what you really want in life if you've only known one thing. I needed to get out there and see the world."

"I know what you mean. When I was sixteen during my second semester at this boarding school I snuck out and took a...little vacation to Asia. Bruce demanded I come home instantly, but I was stubborn. I stayed about three weeks. With the locals, and helped out the orphanage. The whole time I was there, I felt differentlike wow where has this been my whole life, and why does this make me happy, but home doesn't. When I did decide to come home, I was expelled from and home just home didn't seem like home to me anymore." Dick said. It wasn't his proudest moment, since Bruce was very disappointed with him. "I was kind of a rebel back then, but I cleaned up my act and got it all figured out."

Kory sat down on the edge of Dick's chair. "Is that why you never seem happy?" she asked. Dick looked at her confused. "C'mon Dick is this really what you want to do or-" Kory stopped. "Nevermind."

As the evening wore on Raven left first around eleven. Then Kory and Gar decided to depart. Gar was tired and slugged his way to the elevator. Kory stood at Dick's front door. She knew she had to leave but she really didn't want to. "I had a lovelt time." she said unknowingly flirting with her eyes. "Well, good night." as she turned to leave Dick grabbed her arm. Kory spun around to face him.

"Yes." was all he said. Now Kory looked like she didn't understand. "I'm sure this is what I want."

"Oh, well than I'm happy to help you." Kory said. She slowly walked to the elevator, where Gar looked annoyed at her taking so long. Kory was mind somewhere it had never been before. if Dick was so happy why didn't he look happy? Did he think she was stupid? She could tell if a person was happy or not, and Dick wasn't. He was doing this to please Bruce and that wasn't how anyone was meant to spend their life. She'd spent her whole life trying to make her parents happy, but then she realized they were living her life for her. Dick needed some serious attitude adjustment, he needed to want to live. That's all Kory thought about leaving the building, the cab ride home, that night, and that morning.

It wasn't much better for Dick either. He saw her in his dreams. She lived the exact opposite as he did. She was a ggod girl, but she was also a free spirit. She would go against her parents, and risk losing their love and respect, for herself. Dick used to be like that, but it was breaking Bruce's heart. When he ranaway to Malaysia when he saw sixteen it killed Bruce. dick decided never to disappoint him again. Today he was obiediant, and did everything Bruce wanted him to.

This is what he wanted. Right?

Well, tell me what you think I tried my best with the grammar this time. Thank you to all who reviewed