Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Characters are not mine
Characters: Dick/Kory
Spoilers: Nightwing Annual 2
Summary: The road to childbirth is plagued with late night cravings, black eyes, and really bad dreams. Completely inspired by the nonsense that was the Nightwing Annual.
Curses? The dark? Struggling? Where's the source
Of these yarns now (except in nightmares, of course)? - Philip Larkin
Taking the three slices of lemon meringue pie from her husband as well as the glass of orange juice that he offered, Kory smiled at him and tried not to wince at the terrible bruising on the left side of his face. "I am sorry for the black eye, Dick.""It's okay, Kory," Dick assured her, smiling easily as he slid onto the bed next to her. He curled up next to her, fingers twining in her hair as she balanced the pie plate on her stomach. "You must have been having a pretty bad dream to react like that when I was trying to wake you up, though."
"It was awful," Kory agreed between bites.
"Want to tell me about it?" Dick laid his head on the side of her stomach, in a prime spot for their unborn to kick enthusiastically against his cheek, and tilted his head up to look at her questioningly.
"I dreamt you cheated on me before our wedding," Kory said, matter-of-factly, vaguely wishing Dick hadn't found the jar of pickles she had stored under the bed and thrown them away. They would have gone fabulously with the meringue.
"Kory," Dick said patiently, "I already told you. There was no bachelor party. Roy is full of -"
"You should be nice to Mar'i's future favorite uncle," she scolded. "And in my dream, you did not cheat on me at the bachelor party. You cheated on me with Barbara Gordon in her apartment."
Dick sat up so quickly that he almost caused Kory to drop the spoon in her hand. "Kory! I would never - you have to know that -"
Kory waved her spoon dismissively at him before scrapping the last few bites of meringue from the pie plate. "I know, Dick. I was not happy with you in the dream, or when I first woke up, but now that I am awake, I realize how silly it was. You value monogamy far more than anyone I have ever known."
Dick frowned, and Kory pushed the stray lock of hair out of his eyes. "I know you keep telling me that really bad nightmares are a normal part of a Tamaranean pregnancy, but why do you always dream about me cheating on you?"
"I do not always dream about you cheating on me," Kory insisted.
"No, that's true. Last night, you dreamed that I was willing to leave you to chase Barbara's motorcycle down four city blocks while you were waiting in our apartment. That's not cheating at all." Dick's lips turned into a pout, and Kory resisted the urge to kiss it away.
"If the dreams were not bad ones, they would not qualify as the nightmares that plague this cycle of my people's gestation," she reminded him, using her fingers to scrap the remaining crumbs of the pie filling off the plate. "And Barbara was very important to you before I met you."
"Kory." Dick scooped her her chin in his hand and pressed up against her, moving the empty pie plate out of the way as his free arm cradled her. "Barbara was a very important part of my life when I was Robin. But I'm not Robin anymore. And you are the first, last, and only woman I've ever wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I have never once thought about what might have been - with Barbara or anyone else."
"If I thought otherwise, Dick, I would have given you that black eye on purpose," Kory responded, taking advantage of Dick's proximity to steal a kiss. As often happened with the two of them, the kiss gave way to more.
Later, after Kory had fallen back to sleep, she slept soundly without nightmares.