+1. Rich Kid (with Playboy)

PARIS, FRANCE

July 26, 2011 00:00UTC+1

Richard smiled charmingly as another girl smiled prettily at his direction. The Team had gone on an undercover mission in order to protect the heir of one of the richest people in France. Those who knew of Robin's true identity (Wally and Artemis) were integrating in the party with him. The rest of the Team was waiting outside back-up.

In order to protect his identity, Robin had asked Miss Martian to make sure he wasn't part of the mind link, but he did communicate information via text message to Wally, so that Wally would be able to say it over the mind link.

Richard was wearing his regular choice of Armani suit. Wally wasn't wearing anything near as fancy, nor was Artemis. Wally had a regular tuxedo on, while Artemis was wearing a slim-fitting black dress that reached up to her knees and five inch black heels.

Artemis shimmied her way to Richard's position. Richard immediately held out his open hand.

"Une danse, s'il vous plait?" questioned Richard in fluent French. A dance, please?

Artemis smiled and placed her hand onto Richard's open one. "J'aimerais bien." I would love to. She leaned in closer to whisper in Richard's ear: "If you touch my ass, you die."

"Noted," Richard whispered back.

The two walked onto the dance floor and started waltzing.

"Did you see anyone suspicious?" questioned Artemis, using the closeness as an excuse to speak English.

Richard twirled Artemis before answering her. "No one yet. Are they still watching from the skies?"

Artemis smiled. "M'gann says hi. Wally says that if you touch my ass—"

"Wally's ass or your ass?" teased Richard.

"My ass, you die," reiterated Artemis.

Richard smirked. "Well, I wouldn't want to die twice."

"Go charm some of the other girls into giving you dances," said Artemis, rolling her eyes. "You'll look more natural in this party."

Richard laughed. "You forget; I am natural in this party."

Artemis saw that. It was obvious he knew how to act like these rich people from his childhood, after being adopted by Bruce Wayne. From the way how he attracted girls' looks, he obviously knew a thing or two about charming the ladies from Bruce.

After the last note of the violin was left hanging in the air, all of the couples broke apart to applaud the orchestra. Artemis curtsied to Richard, and Richard bowed back.

Before Richard could move an inch, Artemis was suddenly replaced by another girl. With a roughish grin, Richard held out his hand and pulled out the charm.

-x-

Wally had no idea what was wrong with him. All of the girls seemed to flock over to Richard rather than to his beautiful self. Sure, he was spoken for with Artemis, but the two of them hadn't even come to the party as a couple.

Of course, that didn't mean that he didn't glare at the guys who asked Artemis to dance. None of the guys noticed him, but the glaring did make him feel better. Artemis, with much loyalty, rejected most of the guys that came her way, but did accept a few so she wouldn't seem out of place.

For some reason, only a few girls had asked Wally to dance. He wasn't quite sure why the Wally charm wasn't working on these girls. Then again, it was kind of obvious that he was a bit out of place. They probably thought he was some unknown Scottish prince or something due to his hair. Does Scotland even have royalty, Wally questioned to himself.

Superboy's gruff voice came over the mind-link in order to answer Wally question. "They have a constitutional monarchy: Elizabeth II."

Wally startled. "And how did you know that, Supey?"

"The G-nomes thought it was important for me to know all of the leaders of the world, as well as high-standing people, such as Bill Gates or Bruce Wayne," Superboy replied.

"How do you not know Britney Spears?" asked Wally incredulously.

"I think he meant those with power in the world, not idols," said Artemis with an internal sigh before changing the subject. "M'gann, is there anything suspicious where you are?"

"Everything's clear on the south entrance," stated Miss Martian. "Aqualad, how about you?"

"There is no one coming from the underwater entrance," Aqualad confirmed. "Superboy?"

"No one seems to be climbing in through the windows," replied Superboy, using his heat vision to check for body signatures near the windows.

Wally looked down at his cell phone when it buzzed. "Robin says that there doesn't seem to be anyone on the floor." How Robin knew that they were talking about potential suspects was beyond Wally.

"Are we sure that there's a threat and that this isn't some false alarm?" questioned Superboy.

"Batman wouldn't have sent us here if it was a false alarm," Wally stated in place of Robin.

Wally's phone buzzed again. He shook his head slightly. "I swear, Robin has mind-reading skills."

"What do you mean?" asked Miss Martian, the only mind reader.

"He just thanked me for sticking up for Batman for him," said Wally, slightly surprised. One would think he'd be used to Robin's near-omniscience after being his best friend for several years, but he wasn't. "He's still not connected to the mind link, right?"

"He isn't," Miss Martian stated.

"I think all Bats can do that," commented Artemis. "How else do they know about everything?"

Wally glanced at the text his buzzing phone alerted him to and shook his head. "He says that they're just that awesome."

Artemis shivered. She trusted everyone on the Team but having someone know her so well was strange. "Are you completely sure that he isn't connected to the mind link?"

"Completely," Miss Martian stated amicably despite the small digs at her ability. "I would have to be the one to connect him to the mind link anyways."

"Okay, he is just scary," stated Artemis. "I mean, yeah, anticipation is a skill for Bats, but being able to tell what everyone is doing when they do it? That's just…"

"Scary?" Wally finished.

Wally could feel Superboy mentally rolling his eyes. "Robin isn't scary. He's strong, yes, but not scary."

"Well, Supey," Wally started, thinking about the first time he met Robin, "you've never really seen him in Gotham."

"Team, stop chattering and keep watch," stated Aqualad over the mind link.

The Team agreed and continued to survey the area.

Wally stared at Richard jealously as another pretty girl walked up to him.

Wally knew that Richard was the ward of Bruce Wayne, but he hadn't even realised that Bruce's charm had rubbed off on Richard. Although it was obvious that Batman was probably putting on an act as Bruce Wayne, Wally didn't think that Robin would be putting on an act as Richard. After all, Richard had only been a rich kid for a few years; it wasn't as if he was used to these parties and charming ladies. After all, Richard was barely fourteen; there was no way that he could charm ladies better than Wally. And he knew that Robin was not a spoiled brat like these other people at the party.

-x-

Aqualad breathed deeply from underwater. It had been a while since he had swam in a freshwater environment, the pool in Mount Justice came directly from the ocean, and while he was more used to saltwater, there was something crisp about freshwater that seemed to be like snow. He was slightly worried when he heard that Robin, Wally, and Artemis were going undercover at a party with rich people. While he trusted in Robin, Wally, and Artemis, they were not the best behaved teenagers on the Team. He was especially worried about Robin, as he was rather young and would probably get bored easier than Wally or Artemis.

In hindsight, Aqualad probably shouldn't have worried about Robin: Robin was very professional when it came to missions, even if he did banter with Kid Flash and disappeared at times.

When he first met Robin, Aqualad was shocked. He had heard all about the Batman and had thought that his apprentice would be as serious as the stories. But, no, Robin had been the complete opposite of the Batman, all happy and mischievous. In fact, the informality that both Robin and Kid Flash showed their mentors were shocking and quite unlike how things were done in Atlantis. It made Aqualad dislikes them and distrusts their ability to fight; after all, if they were unable to pay respect to their mentors, how would they be able to fight?

Of course, this belief was ruined when Kid Flash and Robin saved his life on two separate occasions.

He had asked why they had, as he had been treating them fairly coldly since he met them.

"Just because you're a cold fish doesn't mean that you should die!" Kid Flash had exclaimed, shocked.

"Kaldur," Robin had said, using his name that he hadn't given to them yet, "you may not like us, but you chose to fight in this war and that makes us brothers in arms. We would never let a brother in arms die and I am sure that you wouldn't as well."

Aqualad had known then that they were much more than they appeared to be and he started getting closer to them until they were more than brother in arms: they were actually brothers. They and Speedy.

Aqualad breathed in and out, breaking out of his thoughts. Without the others knowing, he had been smirking at Wally's complaints of Robin getting more girls to dance than him. He did not know the kind of training the Batman put Robin through, but the fact that the Batman could train Robin to be such a ladies' man would have been quite surprising if he hadn't heard Robin complain about the villains that the Batman sometimes had relations with. Still, he would have thought that Robin would have been too young for such training.

-x-

Miss Martian was quite happy watching the party from afar.

Of course, she would have been much happier if she was able to be in such an exquisite party, but she still didn't know Robin's identity and he wasn't going in with sunglasses. How she was supposed to recognise Robin without his sunglasses was beyond her, but she supposed that Batman had a reason for the things he does.

Plus, she wasn't sure if she could play rich kid as well as Artemis, Wally, or Robin. Especially Robin. She giggled every time Wally complained that Robin was getting things more easily than he or when girls flocked to Robin instead. Miss Martian was sure that Robin was rather handsome if he was able to get so many girls as Wally complained about and wondered how exactly Robin was able to blend in so well in a party.

Miss Martian was sure that Robin had been undercover before; after all, he helped coach her how to blend in when she was using her shape-shifting abilities to become other people, but she didn't know when he would have the time to learn how to blend into a social event such as this. After all, it was apparently one of the biggest social events in all of France and she couldn't help but be a little bit worried about the three that were inside. Wally wasn't the most polite person and neither was Artemis, but Robin was the youngest and most of the time, the most immature out of everyone on the team.

Still, it seemed that he was acting quite well, according to Wally and Artemis. She couldn't skim the minds of the people inside because she might accidentally get Robin in a conversation with someone using his real name, but she was still connected to Wally and Artemis: Wally had nothing but complaints for Robin's ability and Artemis was the complete opposite.

It was just too bad that Zatanna and Raquel couldn't make it. Miss Martian was sure that they would have enjoyed hearing about Robin's acting skills as well.

-x-

Superboy wasn't sure what the fuss was about Robin being able to tell when they were talking about what. Robin was always the one who could anticipate and figure out what people were going to do; that was why he was such a good team member. Even though Aqualad usually had the final say on plans, Robin was the one who could usually figure out what the enemy was going to do and tell Aqualad his suggestions. If Robin could do that to villains that he may barely know, he was obviously going to be able to do so with the Team, whom he has known for a long time.

However, Superboy was surprised at the fact that Robin was apparently a good actor. After all, Robin never seemed to pretend around them; he was just his very goofy and hyper self. Superboy did see Robin get serious during missions, but that didn't necessarily mean that he was acting. After all, Superboy was focused during missions and less focused now in his civilian life as Conner Kent, but he wasn't acting during either of his roles. They were both just natural to him; there was no acting involved.

The fact that Robin could play the rich kid and the playboy well enough to fool the real rich people and possible playboys inside the party was difficult to believe in at first, but after hearing Wally mentally complain about it for a few hours now, Superboy knew it was true. It made Superboy wonder how many times has Robin acted before with them; has acted happy instead of showing his sadness or hiding his pain.

He didn't like doubting Robin and this acting like a rich kid and a playboy was making him starting to doubt Robin's sincerity.

No, you know Robin better than that, Superboy scolded himself. You've been on the team with Robin for more than a year, now. You've placed your trust in him time and time again and he has done nothing to dissolve that trust. Just ignore his apparent sudden acting ability and learn to cope.

Superboy wished this mission was over already.

-x-

Richard smiled as a pack of girls giggled in his direction. He knew that the other members of the team were probably shocked at the fact that he could integrate so well into the party, even Wally and Artemis, who knew his secret identity. They probably thought he was just good at acting or whatever, which was completely false.

After all, he got used to his richness pretty quickly when he first moved into the manor (although he never became spoilt) and Bruce had always told him that he had a natural charisma at attracting girls (and that conversation had just been ew).

Richard smirked. The team really needed to stop underestimating him.

A/N: You can kind of tell where I lost inspiration, but at least it is long! Sorry for the long wait, I've just been busy with school, clubs, Tae Kwon Do, and studying for competitions. I'm sorry! ;~; Hopefully this chapter doesn't disappoint, although I'm sure it will…

Edit: Thanks to the French anon for correcting my French! They might be fluent in French, but I'm not... ;~;