Chapter 1

The sky was seven shades of orange, rose, and lavender while the clouds were an illuminating lemon. The wind had a noticeably sweet scent to it and was warm, even coming off of the bay. A man stood before the infamous tower, arms crossed and eyes on the horizon. To the east he heard the familiar hum of a technologically advanced aircraft filling the air. He turned and watched the T-Ship descend through the clouds, head straight at the tower, then slow and crawl into the hanger within. Nightwing made his way inside to meet his friend.

He entered the garage and just saw the robotic man climbing out of the cockpit. "Should've expected you to arrive first."

"Why's that? My flawless internal clock?" Cyborg laughed. "I see you're still in uniform 24/7. Do you even own a pair of jeans?"

"Do you?" the other man shot back with a smirk.

Cyborg laughed at that. "Only a few holographic ones. But when you've got a body as pristine as mine you don't need to hide yourself behind cheap fabric." This was true as he'd redesigned much of his parts and now looked far less clunky. It had been a much needed upgrade and a great improvement both practically and visually.

"Cheap fabric? Guess I'll have Bruce send you the bill next time I get an order of suits in," Nightwing chuckled. He might not have had any superpowers but that did not mean his suit was any less a work of genius. Black, blue, and destruction proof.

"No thanks, I've got enough bills to pay," Cyborg smirked. "How're you doing, Dick?"

"Fine," said Nightwing, shaking his hand. "Glad to see you here. Are you sure Steel City will be alright?"

"Yeah they'll be fine without me for a year," said Cyborg coolly. "Though they're not one bit happy. I did leave Karen in charge, after all."

"Those poor souls," Nightwing chuckled. "How's Sarah taking it?"

"I told her she could come but she's too settled in there," Cyborg sighed. He and Sarah had been dating for years and she'd made the move to Steel City with him when he took over the Titans East. "She's gonna visit whenever she can. So when's everyone else getting here?"

"Any time now," Nightwing shrugged. "We said 6 and it's now…6:13. So they should be here any second."

"How long's it been since you've seen Kori?" asked Cyborg.

"Three months," Nightwing sighed.

Cyborg whistled. "You must be dying. Is this the longest you've been apart?"

"No but it's pretty close to it," said Nightwing, uncomfortably shifting. He was obviously very anxious to see his beloved wife but didn't want his friend to know just how excited he was.

The gentle purr of an engine caught their ears and they all turned to the garage entrance at the back, where there was a tunnel that went under the bay and led out to the city. It grew louder and soon a light could clearly be seen. Judging by the sound of the motor and the single headlight there was clearly a motorcycle approaching them. It arrived and headed straight for them, turning and screeching to a stop a few feet before the duo. The rider killed the engine, dismounted, and removed his helmet.

"Hey dudes," Beast Boy grinned and ran a hand through his flattened hair to muss it up.

"Where did you get this?!" Cyborg drooled and began doing laps around the chopper, trying to take in every beautiful detail.

"You like it?" asked the changeling, pleased.

"Like it? I want it!" Cyborg laughed and scanned it with his cybernetic eye.

"So you finally got a pair of wheels," Nightwing smiled and looked over the bike as well. He did appreciate a good motorcycle. "And, I can't believe I'm saying this, you don't look ridiculous on it."

"I know, right?" Beast Boy laughed and shook his hand. "So what's it been, eighteen months?"

"Roughly," said Nightwing, thinking.

"Did you miss me?" Beast Boy asked as he slipped off his pleather jacket and tossed it onto the bike, leaving him in a tee and jeans. It appeared he'd certainly given up living in his uniform at all times.

"To an extent," said Nightwing. "The Tower's seemed less…green without you here."

"Hardy har, haven't heard that before," the shape shifter rolled his eyes.

An encroaching shriek filled the air and they looked at each other oddly. They turned just in time as Starfire burst through the open hanger door and launched herself right into Nightwing, knocking him off his feet and sending the two of them clear across the garage. Once they came to a stop she began kissing him enthusiastically, which he made no move to stop. She only gave her husband a moment to breathe when she cried, "Oh, Dick, I have missed you so very much."

"I missed you, too," he smiled and kissed her again.

"Jeez, wish I could find someone to give me a greeting like that," said Beast Boy.

"My friends! I am so happy to see you!" she squealed, releasing her man and going to give her two friends strong hugs.

"Ah, Kori, bones!" Beast Boy choked.

"Circuits! Circuits!" Cyborg yelled as his body began to creak and crack.

She released them but didn't drop her wide smile. "You are both looking wonderful. Victor, I have not seen you since you have upgraded your body. I am very impressed. It suits you most efficiently."

"Why thank you," Cyborg beamed proudly.

"And, Garfield, you are looking quite handsome as well," she said kindly.

"Come on, don't state the obvious," Beast Boy smirked.

"And you're looking as modelesque as ever," said Cyborg, which was true enough.

"Surely I do not look like a model," Starfire said modestly. Though she wore a simple blouse and skirt her natural beauty and glowing presence made her look ready for the runway. "I have not had a good night of sleep in two days. I have been far too excited about coming home to all of my friends and my beloved husband." And with that she wrapped her arms around him possessively.

"Well I guess we should head inside," said Nightwing.

"What about Raven?" asked Cyborg.

"She's coming, right?" asked Beast Boy.

"I have no idea," Nightwing shrugged. "I haven't been able to get in contact with her."

"Man, it's like she just dropped off the face of the Earth," said Cyborg.

"But we all promised to reunite in five years' time," said Starfire. "She would not break a promise, correct?"

"Correct," said a voice within the shadows. Unbeknownst to the others, Raven had been in the hanger from the beginning, watching and listening as her friends greeted each other. And when she came forth they jumped a good foot each of them. "Hello."

"There she is!" Cyborg cheered.

"Raven!" Starfire exclaimed and went to pounce on her. She easily avoided her, melting into the shadows and reappearing besides Cyborg. "It appears you still do not like the hugs."

"No, not really," she said plainly. "Nice to see you all again."

"Been a long time," Nightwing smiled.

"Where the hell have you been, young lady?" Cyborg exclaimed, his excitement at her appearance turning into aggravation. "I haven't heard from you since we left five years ago!"

"It wasn't personal, I cut off contact with everyone," she said. "It was instrumental in achieving inner peace."

"And were you successful?" asked Nightwing.

"Mostly," she replied. "It would take a lot to elicit a negative emotion out of me now. And, no, that's not an invitation to try." She eyed the changeling to give him a warning glare.

"Why're you looking at me?" he asked, already smiling guiltily of something he had yet to commit. "I'm not gonna tease you anymore. But I would like to know what's going on with your clothes. What the hell're you wearing?"

She raised her eyebrow and looked down at her attire. She suddenly remembered that her friends hadn't seen her in what was now her usual outfit. She stood before them draped in white robes that indicated she had been very far away, residing somewhere in or near the Asian continent. She cursed her oversight, since she knew Cyborg would get right to work trying to figure out where she'd been living by her attire, but would not let it affect her. She let the negativity she was feeling release through her pores and said, "I don't see what's so funny about my attire. This is functional, traditional, and practical for where I was residing."

"And where was that?" asked Cyborg, pushing for more information on her whereabouts, jotting all of this down in his memory banks.

"None of your business," she said simply.

"Well I think you look great," Nightwing smiled. "I don't know if I've ever seen you looking so refreshed. Wherever you were must've been good for you. And I like you're hair, I'm glad you grew it out."

"I can't say the same for you," she said, looking at her former leader's long locks. "Isn't it hard to fight crime having to swish your hair out of your eyes?"

That caused Cyborg and Beast Boy to snort and Nightwing to frown a little. "It doesn't bother me…often."

"I enjoy his hair," said Starfire, running her fingers through it. "On my planet long hair on a male is quite alluring."

"That settles it, the hair stays," said Nightwing, quite pleased as his wife continued to play with his hair. She smiled and kissed him strongly, something he eagerly returned.

"Alright let's go air out our rooms and give the lovebirds some privacy," said Cyborg, ushering the other two towards the door.

"No argument here," Raven said dryly and walked on ahead.

"Aw, someone still get uncomfortable around kissy noises?" Beast Boy teased.

"You'd get uncomfortable if you could feel other people's emotions," Raven replied plainly. "Especially when they become aroused."

"Ooh, that means you know whenever two people are getting it on?" Beast Boy snorted.

"Two people…one person…alone in his bedroom," she said with a slight smirk and walked a little faster.

He almost asked what she meant but luckily his brain moved a little quicker than his mouth, for once, and instead he broke out in a blush. "Wish I'd known that a little sooner."

"Yes, that certainly would've been a fun conversation," said Raven.

"Ah, it's good to be back here," Cyborg grinned contently.

It had been five years since the team had all been together. Each had felt growing pains and made the collective decision to part ways for a bit and. Nightwing stayed behind in Jump City and took sole responsibility for it, which kept him quite busy. Starfire travelled the world every few weeks for a couple weeks at a time doing her best to strengthen alien relations with different nations and helping whatever affiliates were nearby. Cyborg made the move to Steel City and was now the head of the team located there. Beast Boy decided to team jump around the planet and go wherever he was needed for whatever mission he was wanted for. Raven was the only one to give up crime fighting all together and focused on achieving peace in her being by studying and learning from the greatest leaders in meditation around the world. For those five years they all focused on their own careers and lives, though they did manage visit each other every once in a while. Well all but Raven, or course. But now they were getting back together for old time's sake, as they'd planned when they first went their separate ways.

It took a while for Nightwing and Starfire to finish up their reunion in the hanger but once they'd come to their senses they joined the others in getting their closed up rooms ready for occupants once more. The windows were opened and everything was dusted off. It had been quite some time since the Tower had housed more than just the married couple so Cyborg went about doing diagnostic checks on the tower and updating where it was needed. Nightwing went out to get pizza for dinner, since it was already getting late and he knew they'd all missed their local cuisine, and Starfire happily went with him seeing as she didn't want to be parted from him for another moment. Raven cleaned her room up rather quickly then went about gathering everyone's bedding to wash and return them so they could sleep in nice clean beds. Beast Boy spent most of his time in his room trying to find the source of a strong sour smell that made his nose burn and his stomach flip. It turned out to be a forgotten carton of curdled ice cream.

The couple returned with enough pizza to feed two baseball teams and word soon got out. They all met in the common room and sat around the table for the first time in years. It was both nostalgic and delicious.

"I am so happy that we are all together once more," Starfire smiled happily. "Truthfully I feared that we would never sit and enjoy the pizza with one another again."

"Well let's enjoy it cuz who knows when it'll happen again," said Cyborg, who had taken an entire pizza for himself.

"Yeah with the way things are going I doubt we'll all have a chance to get together like this often," Beast Boy agreed.

"Oh please do not say such things!" Starfire cried. "I wish for us always to gather and do the fighting of crime. Perhaps we should set a date again like when we first parted ways?"

"We can try but who knows if we'll all be able to get away from our responsibilities again," said Nightwing. "I know Vic's got a busy schedule running the Steel City team, Raven's trying to avoid confrontations, and Gar's always off on some crazy mission almost getting himself killed."

"Dude, that is so not true," Beast Boy objected. "In the last five years I've only been on two missions where I almost died. That's two out of, I don't know, two hundred? And those 'crazy missions' are missions you suggested I take."

"Speaking of which, how was Hong Kong?" asked Nightwing.

"Ridiculous," Beast Boy groaned. "Vic, you need to make me a translator thing to stick in my ear so that I can understand any language. The only person on the team who said they could speak English couldn't understand anything I said. I almost lost because of it."

"I told you to let someone else handle it," said Nightwing.

"You also said that half the team spoke perfect English," Beast Boy shot back. "And it's not like the mission itself was hard or anything. It was just the language barrier. Honestly, I should've told them to stay home and let me take care of the guy. I would've gotten it done five times faster."

"I'm sure you would have," Nightwing smiled. "And I'm still waiting on that report."

"Yeah yeah, you'll get your damn report," Beast Boy brushed him off. "Just quit setting me up with crazy missions that put me on a crash course towards death."

"If I didn't know any better I'd think Dick was trying to get rid of you," Cyborg laughed.

"Ha!" Nightwing snorted. "If I wanted to get rid of him he'd be long gone by now."

"Oh, you wanna go?" Beast Boy grinned, ready to pounce. "Cuz I'll take you on."

"Come on, don't you want to wait a few days before challenging me?" Nightwing smirked back. "Or do you intend on spending our first week back together in a cast?"

"You're the one who's gonna be in a cast, boy wonder," Beast Boy's eyes narrowed and his shoulders rocked with anticipation like a jaguar on the prowl.

"I'll play ref!" Cyborg said excitedly and jumped up.

"And the room is officially filled with too much testosterone," said Raven. She then sighed and added flatly, "Just like old times."

"Raven, would you like to do the rough housing so as to re-forge our bond?" asked Starfire with a smile. "Shall I begin with the ceremonial talk of smack?"

"And that would be my cue to leave," said the empath standing up and heading for the doors, avoiding the scuffle migrating around the common room. "I'll be around with everyone's bed sheets in a little bit. If you're not in your room I'm leaving them outside of your door." But no one heard her since their yells and cheers easily drowned out her voice. She found it rather immature but couldn't help smiling at the scene. "Yup, home sweet home."