***A/N: Apologies to you, dear faithful readers, for not beating us senseless with wet noodles for not updating sooner! Hopefully the next chapter won't have such a stupidly long gap before its posting... In any case, enjoy!***

Robin promptly polished off his glass of brandy and was offered a second by Bruce.

"Cheers," Bruce dead-panned as he raised his glass, clinking his with Dick's. Both proceeded to down the full glasses in one swig.

Dick grimaced as he finished his while Bruce carefully considered his empty glass, the expression on his face clearly indicating confusion as to the lack of liquid.

"Goodnight Bruce." Dick raised his empty glass toward Bruce and set it down on the tray on his way up to his room. He stumbled slightly up the stairs; Alfred chuckled lightly while at the foot of the stairs, his traditional place in the background provided easy access should his bosses require anything.

"Sir," Alfred mock-lectured to the man who he had raised as a son, "you ought not to give young Master Dick alcohol that can peel off paint when he is not accustomed to drinking just yet." Bruce shrugged and leaned back into his chair, absently whistling an off-key drinking song while losing himself in his thoughts.

The next morning, Robin felt sunlight beaming through his eyelids and groaned at the throbbing pain it was creating. What on Earth had possessed him to think that any liquor given to him by Bruce would be anything other than lethal? He pulled his duvet up over his head and decided that there was no way that he was getting up in the next few hours.

Unfortunately for the Boy Wonder, the schedule of billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne did not take adolescent boy hangovers into consideration. He sat up as he heard Alfred blandly knock on his door with a bit more force and volume than necessary. Rather than waiting for the teenager to get out of bed and answer the door himself, Alfred let himself in and intoned in an irritatingly chipper voice, "Good morning, Master Richard! Breakfast is being served and your friends are already downstairs. Master Bruce suggested I come and rouse you myself, as he recalls being a teenager and never wanting to leave his bed." The old man beamed.

"Uggh." Robin grunted monosyllabically.

"I'll tell them that you'll be down momentarily." The butler let himself out, shutting the door loudly behind him. Alfred chuckled to himself. That would teach the young man about properly hydrating while drinking to prevent mornings like this.

Robin felt that Alfred was getting an obvious and unholy amount of pleasure from his discomfort. He threw himself out of bed, hoping that maybe he could have some ibuprofen for breakfast.

All of the Titans were seated down at the table by the time Robin trudged down there. A vast array of cereals, pastries and other breakfast items were proudly on display but the Boy Wonder had little appetite for anything other than a glass of water and medicine at the moment.

"Rough night, huh?" Cyborg chortled while his best friend sent him a look that would curdle milk. Under normal circumstances, the half-robot would have felt guilt. But it was impossible to take Robin seriously while the bags under his eyes made him seem like a whimsically oversized raccoon.

Starfire blinked blankly. "I do not understand, Robin, are you ill?"

"Not quite, Star." Raven's lips were quirked in a half-hearted attempt to smother a smile.

Beast Boy was not as diplomatic as the Goth girl. "Ooooh, somebody's hungoverrrrrr!"

Robin wordlessly took his place at the table, where to his delight he found a personal ibuprofen bottle waiting for him with a tall glass of mineral water. He immediately forgave Alfred for his gratuitous gloating. After a moment, Richard realized that Bruce was not among them. "Where's Bruce?" He queried, "I though he was the one who wanted me downstairs."

Alfred handed the teen a stack of pancakes with an apologetic glance. "Master Wayne was forced to leave earlier than he had expected; some emergency at Wayne Enterprises I believe."

"Oh." Dick was a little disappointed. He had thought that maybe he and his mentor could spend the day together discussing weapons and strategy. Oh well, some other time.

"But," Alfred continued, "Master Wayne did give you all free rein of the manor, minus his cave of course, and said you may request whatever you wish for lunch."

Beast Boy and Cyborg shared a brief glance, quickly pushed in their chairs and scampered off down one of the numerous corridors in search of entertainment. Starfire, who upon arriving at the manor had noticed the lavish and precisely groomed gardens, proceeded out a large glass doors to the back patio. Robin stood silently and, gripping his head, went off to the nearest couch to wait for his headache to subside. Raven deftly glided out of the dining room after Robin in search of the library. 'It's a manor; obviously a library had to be somewhere around here. It would be completely breaking the stereotype,' she thought as she headed down a marble hall.

She came across a set of large suits of armor posted at the entrance to the library and marveled at how cliché that was. Bruce had little imagination, of that she was convinced. He must have been using Edgar Allen Poe novels for the inspiration for his décor.

Raven wandered down the rows of books and could not help noticing the resemblance between this library and the one Knowledge resided over in her mind. She assumed her meditative stance and began chanting. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos…" Quickly, due to the anomalous level of silence, the walls of books in the library gave way to her mindscape. She began walking down the stone pathway, once again unsure as to what she would find.

She approached an archway, took a deep breath, and strolled through quickly. She had once again found herself in the Hallmark-card explosion that was the realm of Love. The pink and red hearts floating through the air did nothing but irk her as she swatted them away from her face.

"Gotcha!" The maroon-clad version of the goth-girl had jumped her from behind, warranting a six-foot leap from the real Raven.

"Don't EVER do that again!" Raven pulled her hood up as it had fallen off unceremoniously from the jumping. Love gave Raven a slightly resentful look while crossing her arms. "What do you want?" inquired Raven, feeling a little irritated herself.

"I want to know why you have not been taking advantage of a large manor with many private rooms with a certain vulnerable Bird-boy. It's an affront to my very being!"

Raven couldn't argue with that. Love's existence really did result from her suppressing of her feelings for Robin. "It's not that simple. Bruce and the rest of the team have been around, plus I'm not sure now would be a good time."

"Excuses excuses!" Love interrupted with a wave. "He was mildly intoxicated last night. A deaf moose could have heard him stumbling around that manor. Opportunity was literally pounding at the door and yet you still chose to ignore it. Epic failure on your part."

Raven, feeling attacked, responded tersely, "He's dealing with an extremely intense emotional crisis."

"All the more reason for you to be the shoulder to cry on. Take advantage of the situation! Do SOMETHING!"

"Love, your lack of ethics and discretion alarms me."

"That's what I'm here for!" Love twittered about with pleasure.

"I would expect this behavior from Lust, not you," Raven quipped, her eyebrow indicating a level of skepticism rarely seen in any dimension.

"Well, Lust and I have become the best of friends since you've been completely ignoring us." Love began ballet dancing away from Raven, moving to the music that existed solely in her maroon-cloaked head.

"Best of friends? Uh oh. She really has to stop corrupting my personality traits." Raven began pondering Lust's stealthy but effective take-over.

"If you don't act on her requests soon, she'll just keep influencing us until Lust has literally taken over every fiber of your being. Imagine Anger getting in on this-you'd probably take out the entire eastern seaboard! Please, for the sake of the world, just jump Robin's bones already!"

Raven just groaned and dropped her head into her hands. "Why?" She felt an odd combination of frustration and helplessness.

"Don't ask, just do," Love hummed. Raven suddenly felt herself being yanked from her meditation.

"Raven? Raven? Raven? We require your assistance," Starfire had entered the library and was calling Raven back from within her mind.

"What could be so problematic that you have to interrupt me?" Raven was taking her irritation out on the unsuspecting alien.

"Beast Boy and Cyborg." Raven groaned and followed Starfire quickly out of the room. The two girls reached an ostentatious staircase with polished mahogany handrails that must be the bane of whoever had to oil it. A bleary-eyed Robin had stumbled off of his couch and joined the girls as all three looked to the top of the stairs where Beast Boy and Cyborg were gearing up to race down the railings.

Raven looked over at Robin who seemed to be having a difficult time deciding whether to laugh or put an end to this hooliganism. His decision was made for him as Beast Boy shouted "GO!" Cyborg and BB shot down the banisters at an alarming speed. Beast Boy managed to change into a seagull at the end of the railing and coast off without causing himself harm; however Cyborg could not find an unobtrusive way to slow himself down and was careening toward the wall. Raven, still agitated, deftly waved her hand and created a circular barrier of black magic, which Cyborg crashed into at the full-force of gravity. He slid down to the floor and groaned.

"That's what you get for interrupting my meditation." Raven smiled a bit smugly, just as Alfred came running around the corner.

"What in heaven's name is all this ruckus? Master Bruce would never approve. Master Dick?" Alfred pinned Robin with a stern look.

"Right," Robin gestured for Starfire to pry Cyborg off the floor. "Ummm, Alfred, we'll just get out of the house for a while." With that, the team departed rather sheepishly from the manor.