Me: Disclaimer! I do not own the teen titans as I was wa-ay to young when they first came out.

Kitten: That, and she's too poor to buy the rights and butcher the poor plot.

Me: Hey! The plot would have had a glamorous makeover if I owned TT!

Kitten: My point stands supported.

Me: (gets angry and grits teeth) What are you trying to say?

Kitten: (smirks) Definitely not that you can run a TV show well when you can't even remember to bring in your homework.

Me: HEY! I BROUGHT IT IN TODAY!

Kitten: That was last week's

Me: ….Shut up….

Robin's POV

When I got home, I found all of the remaining Titans sitting in the living waiting for me. Raven, as usual, was reading while trying to drone out Beast Boy, who was dancing (badly) with his earphones on, and Starfire….

…looked like she wanted to kill me. Heaven help me!

The moment I stepped into the room I found myself being hoisted up into the air by the front of my shirt. Glowing green eyes wer fixed into a perfect glare.

"WHERE WERE YOU! I WAS BY MYSELF! HOW COULD YOU TELL ME TO WAIT FOR YOU AND THEN LEAVE WITH THAT - THAT - FLOGGNORF!"

She continued to shake me until ound myself with my back hitting the floor, and Cyborg standing between me and Starfire, waving his hands in front of himself.

"Calm down girl!" Robin just ran into a little trouble is all! Ain't that right Robin?" He turned his head slightly to look at me, but didn't take both of eyes off of the enraged Tamerainian princess. A wise move on his part.

I nodded vigorously and scrambled to get up. Dusting myself off, I briefly summarized the events of the night, fro the prom to now. I was careful to leave out the little heart-to-heart Kitten and I had shared, as I didn't really think it was necessary. Or at the very least, was a little too personal to share with everyone.

"Ta'know dude," Beast boy started. I restrained a groan. Beast Boy rarely said anything extremely important, especially at this hour. "…this will probably be all over the news tomorrow. I'd hate to you!"

I froze. Now it was rare for a superhero to swear (in public that is) but the only thought running through my mind was: 'Oh Crap.'

Kiten's POV

When I woke up and checked the time on my alarm, it was already noon, which immediately told me two things: One, that my father was still incarcerated, as he would have woken me up for breakfast. Saturdays were our designated "quality time" days where we go out all day, usually just to the beach or somewhere less public, where no-one was likely to gawk at the strange half-mutant (though you would think the general public would be used to it by now). Two, Fang hadn't thought to come and kill me in my sleep - which is always something to be happy about. I think. I wasn't sure how school was going to be after having my father being publicly sent to jail and dragging a reluctant Teen Titan to prom as my date. And that wasn't even accounting for the drama Mary was sure to bring after humiliating her in the middle of her own house party.

I threw on my fluffy white robe and trudged downstairs to the kitchen with sleep under my eyes. The inviting smell of vegetable soup and homemade sweetbread wafted into my nose. I took a deep sniff and sighed in ecstasy. If there was once thing I loved, it was sweetbread, and only Maria, our maid-slash-cook, could make it better than any up-scale restaurant ever could.

Hearing my dreamy sigh, Maria turned around from the soup she had been stirring. She greeted me with her wide, teeth-showing smile.

"Ah! Kitten! Just in time! I was about to wake you up for lunch. Take a seat." I nodded and did as I was told. Suddenly a thought struck me and gave Maria a rather confused look.

"So why are you here? You get weekends off remember," I asked. She shrugged but didn't turn away from the lunch again.

"I saw the paper this morning about your father in prison. I thought I ought to just check to see if you all right, and maybe make you something eat," she explained.

The timer beeped on stove and she quickly grabbed a pair of oven mitts to take out the bread. I got up to hand her a knife and take out two bowls and spoons for the finished soup.

"Thanks, that's very nice of you-," I smiled over to her. "-but you didn't have to. I could've just ordered pizza or something."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh please dear, a young girl like you needs real food!" she scolded.

"Then I would cook something quick."

She snorted. "What? Like rice? After last time? You're lucky I still allow into the kitchen!"

We both laughed at the recalled memory. I could go into detail about the first time I tried (heavy empathies on the 'tried' here) to cook.

We settled down at the table with two large, chunky bowls veg soup and a plate of still-steaming sweetbread between us. Naturally, she asked about prom, and I told her all about it. She just nodded and asked a few questions. Apparently Robin being my date to prom and our little tour of Jump city hadn't gone unnoticed by a few tabloid newspapers and magazines. Maria just chucked it in the recyclables after I told her what really happened, and she kindly agreed not to tell me what was being said. I simply didn't care to know.

After clearing the plates, I debated on what to do. I had no schoolwork, and the school year was nearly over as it was. I didn't feel like going out as people were likely to recognize me from the tabloids, not to mention I didn't want to run in to anyone from school, especially Fang or Mary (I couldn't decide who would want to kill me more right now).

I decided to wait around to see when (or if) Daddy would get back. If he didn't break out of prison (which would be a whole new level of stupid, even for him), he would probably just tell the police it was a prank on the Teen Titans to send them on a wild goose chase. I briefly wondered if he would be charged with anything, if he tried that tactic. The Titans weren't a part f the police force, so he couldn't get charged with wasting police time, and it was unlikely that he would get charged with terrorism if he claimed it was to get a rise out of a bunch of teenagers. If he went there, he could say it was just a joke taken too far.

My mind briefly wandered into what would happen if he didn't do the sensible and say it was a bad joke. I shook my head to snap myself out of my negative thoughts. Maria helped herself to cup of tea and plonked herself down on my living room couch.

"If you want, I can go out later and rent some movies. I've recorded some stuff beforehand that we can watch now," she offered. I grinned and jumped on the couch opposite to her.

"Sounds brilliant. Daytime T.V. su - uh, is stupid," I corrected myself. Maria eyed me warily. She may not have an official role of authority over me, but she did insist on me using "lady-like language" so I could present myself in a more "respectable" fashion to others.

If only she saw me in school.

The rest of the day passed without incident. I didn't dare check my emails or my phone messages, less I wished to subject myself to all sorts of questions and accusations from people and reporters I hadn't even met before. No doubt my picture had been splashed over all the morning's papers alongside Robin's and Daddy's.

As promised, Maria went out to grab a few rentals and some leftovers from her house. Maybe call a few of her grandkids while she there. Maria was a fifty-three year-old Portuguese woman with a kind, wrinkly face and motherly nature you would only expect to find in children's books. She was born in Portugal but her parents had moved to the US when she was just a year old, but she made sure not to forget anything about her cultural background. In the end, she married an American man named John and they had five kids, all of whom were now grown up and starting their own families. She had been my family's housekeeper for as long as I could remember, so I knew all of her kids and grandkids' names off by heart. When her John died a few years ago from a heart attack, me and my father mourned his death as though he a member of our own family. Which, in a way, he was. Maria was - and still is - like a grandmother to me, and losing John had been like losing a grandfather. Unfortunately though, there wasn't a single person anywhere near my age in Maria's family. They were all either too old (her children) or too young (her grandchildren). Still, they were like family, and considering how my own living blood ties were only my father, I was grateful to them for letting us in.

While I waited for Maria to return, I looked back over the movies I already owned. It wasn't much, as I preferred going to the theatre, and weekends usually consisted of time spent with my father and a cramming to get all of my homework done by Monday. Days where I had nothing to do were as rare as they were slow and lonely. Fang had been my only distraction before, though a rather irritatingly protective one at best. Other than that - er, him -, there was nothing to keep me occupied. I lived in big house, yes, but I didn't have anything to actually do with the hours wasted.

Maria came back eventually, and immediately deposited four plastic containers of leftover Portuguese food on the dining room table. Two contained bacalhãu á gomes de sá, and a slice of Portuguese sponge cake the others.

The conversation over dinner was nothing out of the ordinary.

"How's the family?"

"Fine."

"Good to hear."

"Looking forward to school?"

"No."

Once done, we left our plates on the dining room with a simple half-baked promise of 'doing it later'. Then, we settled down in front of the T.V. with our slices of cake and proceeded to watch whatever movies Maria had rented. Halfway through the first film, and I excused myself to go to the toilet, but actually snuck my way back to my bedroom to sneak a twenty dollar bill from m purse. I didn't know how much Maria had spent on the rentals, but I reckoned twenty would probably cover it. I still had money from last night, as I hadn't stuck around long enough during prom to buy any overly-priced drinks for me and Robin, and the guy from the café had kindly let us have our drinks and fries for free.

I snuck to the bathroom and flushed the toilet to make it sound like I really had been doing something. It must have worked because Maria didn't say anything as we resumed watching the film. As she set up the second movie, I went back into the kitchen to grab some sodas and sneak the money into Maria's purse. Again, she didn't say anything when I got back.

The second film wasn't as interesting as first, and I soon found it hard to concentrate. Though I didn't actually realized I had dozed off until I blinked and found my living room flooded with daylight. I blinked and stretched, noticing the blanket Maria must have covered me with fall to the floor in the process. I shuffled my way to the kitchen and immediately noticed the note and money on the dining room table. Guiltily, I also noticed how all of traces of dinner last night had been cleaned away.

Picking up the note, I immediately recognized Maria's scratchy handwriting.

Dear, it read. I made some pancakes last night for you and left them in the fridge. You were out like a light! But I didn't wake you as you clearly hadn't caught up on your sleep from 'Hell night' as you mentioned in your sleep. Try going out when you wake up. I don't care if pouring outside, you need to get out more! Go to the beach or something, anything!

With love,

Marie.

P.S. nice try.

I smiled at the last bit, knowing that she was referring to the twenty dollars on the counter. 'She knows me too well,' I chuckled to myself. I left the note and the money on the counter and went to take a shower. After not having washed for a whole day I was feeling a bit grimy.

'Maybe Maria's right. Maybe I just need to step out a little more,' I thought as I showered. However, memories of prom night flooded back into my mind and I flinched at the idea of running into Fang, Mary, or even a Titan at this point.

'Then again, I debated. '- if I stay inside any longer I might just go stir crazy.'

So, it was with a heavy heart I dressed, stuffed the twenty dollars in my pocket, grabbed my house keys, and left my house with no particular destination in mind.