Title: From Underneath Dark Skies
Rating: T
Word Count: 7,400+ (total)
Characters: introducing: Kiran Singh (a.k.a. Solstice), Kaldur/Kiran, Dick/Barbara, Wally/Artemis, Conner/M'gann, a little Roy/Jade towards the end
Summary: It's not fair for her to be introduced to the Team like this, all broken and dysfunctional, but she smiles brightly upon her introduction that no one else is listening to and it's the first glimpses of sunlight that has reached the Cave in what feels like a long, long time.
Prompt: #1: light
Other Inspirations: "Lights will guide you home, And ignite your bones, And I will try to fix you" – lyrics from "Fix You" by Coldplay
Note: This is for jenniferhudsonfan33, who requested for a fic with Solstice. The angst kind of took over, so I'm sorry that it didn't end up being focused on Kiran like I wanted it to be. If you don't like it, I definitely owe you another fic!
From Underneath Dark Skies (1/2)
The first time he meets her, he almost wants to apologize.
He's the only one really standing and waiting for her while everyone else is distant and distracted, like it has been for a while. It's not fair for her to be introduced to the Team like this, all broken and dysfunctional, but she smiles brightly upon her introduction that no one else is listening to and it's the first glimpses of sunlight that has reached the Cave in what feels like a long, long time.
So when he greets her, "Welcome to the Cave," and it doesn't sound as exasperated as he's been feeling recently, he wonders if that's supposed to mean anything.
"Thank you." Her voice sounds like chimes. He thinks a head or two turned to look at her. "I'm Kiran."
She puts her hand forward and he shakes it gently. Her skin is dark like his, though still noticeably lighter, and her hair is this cocoa brown that's pulled back into a ponytail. There are silver earrings dangling from her earlobes and her hazel eyes scan the Cave with suppressed interest. She seems like she's holding back a little.
(In his mind, he wonders if someone filled her in and that's why she's being subtle.)
"Perhaps would you like a tour?"
... ...
Her first night at the Cave, she volunteers to cook and he sets the table for every seat as he usually does and they actually all eat together, which mildly surprises him. Other than missions and training, they haven't spent much time as a whole in quite a while.
It's mainly utensils scraping against plates and Kiran talking, because they ask her things, but he figures that it's better than nothing.
But then Artemis asks, "So, how did you get invited to the Team?" and Kiran kind of looks at him and hesitates before answering. It's pretty obvious she knows more than she let on.
"My parents work with Dr. Sandsmark," Kiran explains, setting her glass down too slowly. "It's how I met Cassie. And then she introduced me to Diana and—"
There's a loud shatter followed by a few soft gasps, and M'gann is scooting her chair back and standing up, covered in her food with her plate is in shards on the table. Her eyes are watery and for a few seconds, she's just standing there and everyone just looks at her until she mumbles, "I'm sorry. Let me go clean up."
Conner begins to get up too, reaching for her wrist, "I'll help—"
"No!" she yells, and Conner flinches very, very subtly and doesn't move. "I've… I've got it," she kind of whimpers, and then runs out of the room.
Conner grumbles, "I'm not hungry anymore," before walking towards the hallway, opposite of where M'gann left, and they all feel it when his fist hits the wall in the other room.
"Way to go, Artemis," Wally says coldly.
Artemis's jaw drops a little. "Excuse me," she scoffs, standing up, "but how exactly was I supposed to know that she—"
"Maybe because Cassie told us the last time she came to visit!" he yells, throwing his napkin down and standing up as well. "You're just trying to cause trouble!"
"I wasn't here the last time Cassie visited!" She's kind of shrieking now. Her cheeks are red and there are tears in her eyes, and her tone is dripping in venom when she adds, "I doubt you forgot that I was too busy being a poisonous, backstabbing bitch that day to hang out," and whips her hair when she spins on her heel and storms out.
"I'm full," Wally says through his teeth, and then he's gone in a blur.
Kiran is sitting there, undoubtedly trying to not look as uncomfortable as she probably feels, and he places his hand over hers so that she looks at him. "None of this is your fault," he tells her, because it needs to be said. "It has been like this way for a while."
She nods and smiles a little and doesn't say anything in response. He thinks she appreciates the clarification.
The only other one at the table is Robin, and he inhales shakily and musters up a grin and announces, "I'll help wash dishes," and Kaldur has to smile at him.
He's trying.
... ...
He wonders, sometimes, if the others just tolerate her being there or if they're just too distracted to care much, or just a million other different reasons why no one else really bothers to spend more than two minutes with her aside from Robin and himself. He also wonders if she takes it personally or if she understands enough to know not to.
It's probably the latter, but even then, he can't imagine that it's pleasant having to deal with them and their intensity, or that it's particularly easy to be ignored and not to feel a little hurt by it.
But she smiles all the time despite all of this and he doesn't know how she does it.
... ...
The three of them are sitting on the floor around the glass table in the living room while playing Uno, and the others are elsewhere in the room. He can't see them, but he can sense their presence.
Their conversation jumps from topic to topic until Robin inquires about her powers, because she's been there for a handful of days already and even though they've heard from Cassie, she hasn't had the opportunity to give a demonstration.
Kiran asks, "Want to see?" and stands up in front of the TV, and Kaldur would bet everyone is kind of watching at this point, whether they mean to or not.
She holds her hands out in front of her with her palms facing up, and this swirl of light appears out of nowhere, hovering over her palms and swirling and growing into this shining orb that looks like a small version of the sun. Then she giggles a little as she throws the orb like it were a bowling ball, and it rolls out into the air and bursts into these comets of lights that dance across the room.
Robin is clapping and when Kaldur looks over his shoulder, M'gann's giggling very faintly as Conner is smiling at her from behind, and Wally has this very small grin tugging at the corner of his lips as he watches a beam of light rush past him and blow Artemis's hair around as it circles her.
Kaldur's sure this is supposed to mean something, at least.
... ...
He works up the courage to ask her directly, about what she knows, exactly, when the two of them are walking on the beach.
"I know about all of it." She says this so quietly that he barely hears her above the sound of the waves and the breeze. She also sounds apologetic, as if being told this from someone else rather than them, personally, is wrong to her.
He's glad.
Not about her feeling bad, obviously, but that she has more than a big enough heart to feel bad about everything with. When he tells her this, and apologizes, she laughs lightly.
"Don't apologize," she tells him. "I appreciate the honesty." She stops, bends down and rummages in the sand until she plucks out a seashell. It's sparkling under the sunlight and he wonders how he didn't notice it, himself. "But do you mind not telling the others? They probably already know that I know, but…"
She trails off and he nods, anyway, and smiles when she opens his hand and drops the seashell onto his palm, closing his fingers around it.
... ...
She's pretty good at combat fighting, despite obvious room for improvement. He and Robin help her, though, since Black Canary can't direct their training as often as she could before and the other League members, even Red, can't be around much for one reason or another.
He knows Conner misses Black Canary, even if he won't say it. He's not above admitting it, but with the trouble with M'gann, he's just been a lot quieter than he already was.
Anyway, he walks in on the three of them training on the platform, trying to help Kiran with her stances and transitions, and Conner sort of pauses and ends up watching longer than he probably intended. Robin spots him (he most likely did the second Conner walked in, but didn't say anything until now), lifts his hand up and calls out, "You teach this move better than me. Want to lend a hand?"
So he walks over and Kiran straightens herself and kind of looks at him. He hasn't said a single word directly to her since she first joined.
"Only if she wants it," he mumbles, and Kiran chuckles and says, "Well, someone needs to teach more, or I'm going to get my butt kicked out there!" and Conner laughs a little and says they need room.
As Kaldur and Robin are stepping aside for them, Kiran catches his eye and winks.
She may just be God-sent. Or, Batman-sent.
... ...
Artemis wanders into the kitchen when they're baking.
Well, Kiran is doing all the work because she's telling them about this chocolate thing that her mom makes that everyone loves, and she wanted to show them. She melted semi-sweet chocolate chips and poured it into a glass pan lined with a baking sheet, and drizzled salt crystals and cornflakes before sticking it in the fridge to harden.
Anyway, she and Robin are taking turns dipping their fingers into the remaining chocolate in the bowl (Kaldur politely declined the offer) when Artemis walks through the doorway.
"Oh," Artemis says, "Sorry, I was just—"
"Perfect timing!" Kiran interrupts, and walks over to pull the girl forward with her clean hand so that she's sitting down at the island with them. "They should be done."
Kiran wipes her other hand with a paper towel before opening the fridge and pulling the glass pan out. Kaldur hands her a knife when she asks for one, and they watch her divide the chocolate into squares like it's the most fascinating thing in the world.
Robin rips four more paper towels from the roll and sets them on the counter, and Kiran distributes a square for each of them and watches eagerly as they take their first bites.
It's delicious.
"Oh, my gosh, Kiran," Artemis kind of sighs, "This is amazing! You have to tell me the recipe."
Kiran's eyes sparkle. "How about I whip up another batch and I'll teach you the steps?"
"There are like, two dozen squares here," Robin points. "I think we have more than enough for the four of us."
"We're not the only members of this Team, Rob," Kiran laughs, lifting the baking sheet up and carefully sliding the chocolate squares onto the readied plate. "And Wally probably needs his own dozen."
Kaldur looks at Artemis in time to catch the way her lip twitches into a crooked grin at the mention of the speedster's name, and she mumbles, "Yeah, the idiot does," probably without realizing it. Then he looks at Robin and the Boy Wonder is grinning at him, so they're obviously thinking the same thing here.
... ...
He's having trouble sleeping one night, and goes out to the kitchen to pour himself a glass of orange juice, when he finds her sitting on the couch with her feet propped up on the glass coffee table. She looks up at him when he enters, and gives this smile. There's a mug of nestled in her hands and her hair is kind of in her face, but she still looks really pretty.
(He thinks it'd be impossible for her to stop looking as pretty as she does, though, so.)
He waits until he's gotten his orange juice and settled in beside her before saying, "May I ask what is troubling you?"
She smiles a little. "It's not troubling, exactly," she shrugs, "but I just couldn't sleep and while I was making my tea, I just randomly thought what the Team must've been like before…"
Before everything fell to pieces.
He nods, and this wave of nostalgia hits him all at once even though he's only barely begun to recall some of their memories in his head. And he doesn't know how long she let him sit to himself and replay these moments before softly asking, "Do you mind sharing?"
She's not talking about his orange juice, obviously, and he chuckles, "Of course," and waits for her to pull her legs up and shift a bit until she's more comfortable before going on.
He probably doesn't get through half of the things he could be telling her, but he talks about how they first came together, their rookie mistakes as a Team, their stumbling through their first missions. He knows there are better memories with less petty arguments, but he likes that he told her their slip-ups first because each time he gets to the part where they reconcile, her eyes twinkle as she grins.
"It sounds like a lot of fun," she tells him.
He nods slowly, glancing up at the ceiling for no particular reason. "I miss it very much."
"We'll get them back," she informs, and when he looks at her, she's got her body angled towards him and her head propped up on her hand while the other is holding her mug out.
And even though hers is warm and his is cold, those words sound like a promise or a mission or both (probably both), so he clinks their drinks together and they sip with smiles on their faces.
... ...
On a mission, they're infiltrating this research facility on a private island somewhere in the middle of the ocean and trigger an alarm. They're in a high tower where a supercomputer is that Robin copied data from, and they make it up to the roof and try to evade their pursuers while M'gann flies the bioship over from the other side of the island.
Somehow, a guard gets his arms around Artemis and when she tries to slip free, his hand is over her throat and he's throwing her over the edge.
There are waves crashing onto the rocks just below them, and Wally yells, "No!" and hurls himself after her before Kaldur has the time to react, and for a second, he's just watching their bodies shrink closer to the deep blue, almost black, water.
He's two seconds away from jumping, too, when someone (Kiran) yanks him back and the bioship appears overhead.
They're both shivering on the rocks when they fly to them, Artemis more severely than Wally, and Wally has his arms wrapped around her in a death grip as he's rubbing his hands against her skin. Her arms are around herself, but the hand closest to Wally is fisting the material of his costume really, really tightly.
They bundle the both of them in blankets and after they get the two onto the ship, they sort of just sit in each other's arms in the middle of the floor. M'gann's flying them home, but her eyes keep flickering to her friends and she looks two seconds away from crying. Conner walks up to her and puts his hand in hers like he always, always has when trying to comfort her, and she squeezes back.
That night is the first night they all have dinner together since Kiran arrived, and this time, no one ends up yelling at each other. No one says anything, either, but Kaldur figures that it's alright.
... ...
Kiran apologizes to him the next day, saying that it wasn't her place to try and stop him and she really shouldn't have been selfish enough to come between him and saving two of his closest friends. When he tells her that he doesn't get why her trying to keep him safe is considered selfish, she looks away and whispers, "I didn't want to have to see you get hurt, too."
He gets why, after that.
... ...
The others are beginning to hang out with them more, and Kaldur's glad, because it's been over a month since Kiran joined them and it was about time.
It can sometimes be tricky, though.
M'gann only really hangs out when Artemis is there, and when M'gann and Artemis are there, Conner and Wally won't be. Then at times when Artemis is with them but without M'gann, Conner will be there, and when both Artemis and M'gann are gone, Wally is there, too. Kaldur sometimes spends time with the girls when Conner and Wally are with Kiran, because he doesn't want the girls to feel like he's abandoned them for her. But he and Robin tend to alternate who they hang out with, because they want to spend equal time with everyone.
The last thing any of them need is to feel like they're choosing sides, which they all know he and Robin won't, ever, but still.
And the entire thing is ridiculous enough to give anyone a headache, but the Cave has been noticeably brighter lately and if they need to tiptoe around each other like this to make it work for now, then that's what they'll do.
... ...
They all end up on the training platform together without really planning to be, so when the transporter announces the arrival of Black Canary and Batgirl, the place falls completely silent.
Dinah blinks upon seeing them, having to take in the sight of them all being in the same room without the screaming matches. Behind her, Batgirl's eyes are only really for one other person, and Kaldur turns his head and sees the way Robin's face is sort of blank and filled with emotion at the same time.
"What are you doing here?" Robin asks, tone harsh, and Batgirl presses her lips together in this line the same moment Conner narrows his eyes at the Boy Wonder.
"Black Canary's always welcomed here," Conner reminds defensively.
"They both are," Artemis adds, narrowing her eyes.
Dinah looks a lot less uncomfortable than she probably is. "Guys, let's not—"
"I don't think you're in any position to tell us to do anything after you left with the Birds," Robin interrupts. It's clearly for Black Canary, but his face is directed towards Batgirl and a tear rolls down the girl's cheek from underneath her shades.
"Hey!" Conner grabs Robin's wrist. "Don't talk to Black Canary like that! She didn't do anything wrong!"
"She left us!" He's yelling now, yanking his arm back and gesturing right at Black Canary and Batgirl. "They both did! They left!"
More tears are rolling down Batgirl's cheeks now, "Robin, that's not—"
"Don't."
"No, you don't talk to her like that!" Artemis hisses, nearly shoving Conner out of the way so that she can stand in front of Robin and glare. "Don't talk to either of them like that!"
Robin opens his mouth to respond, but Wally's the one speaking, speeding right next to Robin and glaring back at Artemis. "If it's anyone that shouldn't be telling us what to do, it's you! I don't know what you're still doing here ever since your little secrets got out! You're the one who hurt the Team with all of your—"
"Lies?" Artemis laughs humorlessly. "That's rich coming from the same boy that accepted Megan back the very next day after we all found out she wasn't J'onn's niece." M'gann lets out a whimper and Conner grits his teeth. "Everyone forgave me already, Wally! Everyone but you! Yes, I lied, but that was because I came from a family of criminals and becoming Green Arrow's niece was my only way out!"
"Maybe you should've never left in the first place!"
It feels like a full minute of silence passes as Wally's words echo in their ears.
Artemis blinks, eyelashes dotted with tears as she asks in a whisper, "If that's how you felt, why didn't you just let me drown?"
She steps back before turning on her heels and walking out, not storming out like she usually does, and Wally looks like she had slapped him in the face.
Robin lets out this very bitter, humorless cackle as he begins walking away, throwing his arms in the air and letting his cape brush against Batgirl's arm as he exclaims, "Batman should just save us all the misery and disband the Team!"
Kaldur closes his eyes.