Part Two
Dick doesn't tend to feel embarrassment. He's never been wired that way. It's part of the necessary confidence of being a costumed vigilante. But ever since coming back here it seems to be his primary emotion. To top it off, he found a way to make it worse on himself like the masochist he so often is. Standing in the hallway right now, with those three sets of eyes looking his way, he realizes that fucking his girlfriend within the first fifteen minutes of his long delayed visit was less than a wise decision, and also that he'd probably make the same one if he could go back.
Gar looks ready to explode with laughter, Rachel looks like she wants to disappear into the floor, Babs crosses her arms and taps her short fingernails against her bicep.
"Dick, a moment?" Babs says. She doesn't wait for his response before she walks up to take him by the sleeve. "There's Cocoa downstairs," she announces behind her to the rest of them. Dick gives Kory a silent apology before Babs takes him further down the hallway and out of earshot.
"Wow," Babs says.
"This doesn't have to be a big deal," He says, he can hear the defensive edge in his own voice. But he can't explain himself any other way.
"I mean, it's not a big deal, it's just, you really wasted no time."
What must she be thinking right now? It can be any number of things. He hasn't been normal since he stepped into the door, he's barely been normal for 2 years, not to mention the 14 before that. Babs has always had her own way of navigating his sometimes elusive personality, she was usually the quickest of anyone to take it in stride, but it's been too long. Things have stacked up that need to be dealt with, and what more appropriate time to start is there?
"I'm sorry," he says. "I know what I'm supposed to be here for."
"You don't have to apologize, not for that anyway."
"I'm sorry for all of it, for disappearing."
The corners of her lips turn up a bit, "I don't blame you for disappearing, I get why you left this life behind, or at least I thought I did."
"What does that mean?"
She looks down quickly at her feet, then again at him, and combs a tuft of red hair behind her ear. He was telling the truth when he said she wasn't an ex, but there had been times over the years that they'd sort of danced around each other, before he left Gotham without a trace. Babs wasn't the type to hold onto things like that, romance was always pretty low on her priorities list, still, it was naïve to think she'd be 100 percent cool with him now, especially after this.
"I thought you left because you wanted something more normal. And now you show up with two adopted teens with superpowers and a girlfriend from space, what exactly is normal about any of this?"
He looks at her frantically, grasping for her meaning. To know that Rachel and Gar had powers was one thing. It was a difference they carried that most people aware of the reality of powers could figure out. But nobody knew where Kory came from but them and Donna, nobody was meant to know. The easiest way to keep her safe was to keep it to as few people as possible.
"What do you know about Kory?" he says.
She lets go of a breath, already a mini confession, and gives him an apologetic look. "Bruce did some digging after Jason told him about the people you had in his safe house."
"What?" he says, the anger starting to flame again. Of course the crazy bastard would start a file on them. Batman hated not knowing as much as he could about everything and everyone. He'd even worked out a way to beat every member of the Justice League should any of them go rogue, and while Dick had always thought that was smart, it also highlighted just how little Bruce trusted anyone. Did he find a way to "beat" Kory too? Or Rachel and Gar?
"I'm sorry I have somewhere to be," Dick says through clenched teeth before launching himself down the hall.
Getting to the Bat Cave was always sort of a convoluted process, involving lots of secret doors and special codes, and Dick wasn't certain that the same method to it existed after two years, but he had to try. As mad as he was, he could have damn near clawed his way in. Luckily, the security measures had gone unchanged, all the way down to the old statue with the keypad beneath it. Or maybe luckily was the wrong word, maybe Bruce had some twisted reason for wanting him down there after all.
"Bruce!" He yells, creating a formidable echo in his old mentor's base of operations. "I know you're down here!"
Dick starts down the catwalk that hovers above the expanse of the cave, until he gets to the wall of screens on the other side. There Bruce sits, thankfully not in the Batsuit.
"Bruce?" Dick repeats before looking where the older man is looking. On all of the screens is the same picture, Jason, the kid who replaced him only to meet his far too early death at the hands of the Joker. The clown must have been the one to have taken the picture. In the shot, the boy's mouth is gagged, he's tied up, there are tears in his eyes and bruises on his face, and he's looking at the camera like he's pleading for help.
Dick barely knew Jason, but he knew that he deserved better than the end of the Joker's crowbar. And the sight of the kid's bruised and helpless face multiplied over dozens of screens is enough to form a lump in his throat. Why does Bruce do this? Why does he drown himself in his own pain every chance he gets? Dick came down to confront him about Kory and the others, and he plans to when his anger returns, but for now, he only feels pity.
"Come upstairs Bruce," Dick says, almost demands. "I came here to see you, the least you can do is come upstairs."
Bruce turns his head to look at him. It's the first time they've looked at each other in so long, and Dick feels like he has nothing to say and everything to say at once.
"I didn't think you'd show," Bruce says.
"I didn't think I would either."
Bruce stands up, and Dick hopes for a fleeting moment that he'll turn the screens off, but he leaves them on as he goes to meet Dick.
"You're taller than I remember," Bruce says.
Dick nearly groans in frustration, but bites it back. "No I'm not. I haven't grown and you don't forget things."
"Just making conversation."
"Does that mean you're coming?"
Bruce glances for a moment at the crisp Armani blazer draped over the back of his chair and goes to pick it up, a yes. Finally a yes.
Dinner is mostly quiet, but not the awkward sort of quiet Dick was expecting. It's more the deep, thoughtful kind, as if they're all just taking each other in again. But he notices the way Bruce looks at Kory, and it makes it hard to stay in the headspace of wanting to catch up. Rachel and Gar are at least partially human, but Kory is something else, and with that comes inherent suspicion. Dick wants to fight about it, to defend her, but he also wants Bruce to stay upstairs, in the moment with all of them. He wants him to heal.
After dinner, everyone gathers in the living room around the tree. Gar immediately goes to talk to Bruce, presumably to ask him about the Ferraris, and Rachel sits with Alfred and Babs, enjoying another hot chocolate with extra chili powder, her favorite.
He watches them all while Kory sits in his lap. He wants her there in spite of the commotion earlier, things are better when she's close, and it's not like there are any secrets between them all now.
"You're so quiet," she says. "You're not hiding something are you? Because I thought we were past that."
He smiles up at her before preparing to stand, trusting that she'll follow. He takes her hand then to lead her out to the balcony. If he'd taken her anywhere within the house they'd automatically assume the worst, but also, out there is the best place to look at the snow coming down, pure white against the night sky.
"I'm glad you're here," he says when they get outside. "And there's something I should probably tell you—
"Bruce knows I'm an alien," she says, cutting him off.
"How did you know that?"
"Rachel got it off of Babs, you know, the half demon way."
He pulls her closer, a reassurance. She's so warm against him on the freezing cold balcony, he wants to sink all the way into her. "I'm going to talk to him."
"Leave it," she says. "You already told me all about your hyper paranoid adoptive father who's also the world's greatest detective. Do you think a part of me didn't see this coming?"
"He invaded your privacy."
"No, actually he invaded yours, I'm just a part of it. Besides, maybe it's a good thing it's all on the table, maybe this is a first step to getting to know each other again. That's what you wanted right?"
"Yes but…"
"If you want to tell him off you know I'm in your corner. But if it were up to me I'd rather just have a nice Holiday now and deal with all of the family drama later. I have actual superpowers. I don't need you to protect me from Batman."
"I feel a little roasted by that statement."
"You were meant to," She laughs at him and goes to kiss him. His lips, nearly numb from the cold, start to melt under hers and he twists his fingers into her sweater, wanting desperately to take it off again but knowing that he can't. Tonight, when it's time for everyone to go to sleep, he's going to do it again, slower this time, as slow as they can possibly stand. He wants to have her forever and he'll start with all night long.
"What, still trying to get me out of my ridiculous sweater?" she says, pulling away. "Have you learned nothing?"
He laughs, a little louder and longer than usual, then he fixes his eyes on her as hard as he can, taking her in. He remembers the first time he ever saw her, how much brighter she seemed than anything else in his world. He knew from the beginning that he wanted to take her against the closest available surface, but he didn't know the rest, that he'd end up needing her and wanting her at the same time, in a way that only got stronger the more time passed.
"You look fucking adorable," he says. He kisses her again, even harder this time, hard enough to hurt in that good way. And he pulls away, not knowing what he's going to say until he does.
"And I love you."
As soon as the words come, he forgets why it was ever so hard in the first place. It feels like the most normal, natural thing in the world, and yet she lights up brighter than the crown on her candy colored hair. She takes his face in her hands and kisses his breath away.
"Thank you," she says with a smile.
He deserves that.
They go back inside before Dick freezes to death, and for the first time since he arrived here, it feels the way Christmas is supposed to feel. Gar and Rachel come up to them, both brimming with something to say.
"Bruce says I can drive his Ferrari tomorrow morning if I keep it in the driveway and stay under 30 miles an hour, please don't ruin this for me Dick, just say yes and I promise I'll never ask for another thing."
"We both know that isn't true, but sure," Dick says.
"Awesome!" Gar says, pumping his fist once.
"And Alfred gave me his cocoa recipe," Rachel says. "We're so stopping to buy some muscovado sugar and Aleppo pepper on the way home, just a head's up, this could get expensive."
"Not to worry, I'll send you home with some of both," Alfred says from his position in front of the tree.
"You're the real hero Alfred, never forget it," Rachel says with a casual wink.
They talk between themselves for a while longer, until Commisioner Gordon calls Babs up to tell her he's done with the holiday shift and she takes her leave to spend the rest of Christmas Eve with her dad. Dick hugs her goodbye and promises not to be a stranger this time.
Throughout the night Dick repeatedly looks at Bruce, at the sadness in the man's eyes until at some point he can't help going up to him. Kory doesn't want to make this into a thing, and he won't let it come to that, but something needs to be said, if only so Bruce can know exactly where they all stand.
"I know what you know, about Kory, that she came from somewhere else. And I know how you know it."
"It wasn't personal, I've always gone after intel on anyone with significant abilities."
"It's personal to me. She forgives you, which means I forgive you, but if you want me to be a part of your life again, you can't just do whatever you want when it comes to me and the people I love. I don't belong to you anymore, not like that."
The light from the fireplace flickers over Bruce's handsome, weary face, and the older man sips his brandy before opening his mouth to speak again. "I can't make any promises, but you're here, and I want to do what I can to make us good again Dick, as good as we can be."
"I want that too, and for that to happen you have to know how I feel about her," Dick looks over the room at Kory, standing by the tree, looking as beautifully wrapped as the rest of the gifts. "She's my family now too."
"Well that can only be a positive. If I know one thing it's the value of family, I respect it."
"I know you do, after what happened with Jason…"
He doesn't finish the sentence, he can tell by the look on Bruce's face that there is nothing good or helpful to attach to the end of it. Jason is dead, and it will never be okay. Dick reaches out a hand to Bruce's shoulder.
"Merry Christmas Bruce."
"Merry Christmas Dick."
When the night is over, Rachel and Gar go to their guest rooms to sleep, Alfred heads to his quarters, and Bruce goes back to his cave like Dick feared he would. But it means something that he came up for a while, had a brandy, promised Gar some time behind the wheel, and spent Christmas with them the best he could. He'll never be as good at being Bruce Wayne as he is at being Batman, it's something Dick has always accepted. If Bruce forgives himself for Jason one day, it isn't out of the realm of possibility that they'll fight side by side again, just once or twice for old time sake.
But tonight, the only thing that interests him is keeping the silent promise he made to himself, to get her naked again the second they shut themselves into his room. And he takes his time now. He uses his mouth and his fingers in whatever places she needs to make those sounds that he loves, and he rejoices in her touching him back, she's just so good at it, always knowing where to linger, for how hard and for how long.
She was right about his room, there was never any of him in it, but with her on his bed, open and loving and willing as ever, he feels like he belongs here. She climbs onto his lap and takes him all the way in, and he holds her as they start to move together. She tells him how good he feels inside, the hitch in her breath tells him she means it, but he knows he can make it even better. Without warning, he attaches his mouth to her nipple, making her shiver and cry out softly.
"Say it again," she says, her voice rocking and shaking along with the rest of her.
He removes his mouth from her breast, and stares up at her face, his beautiful Koriand'r, his Tamaranean princess, "I love you Kory," he says, even easier than the first time.
"I love you, too," and she kisses him deep, and they continue into the night as the snow drifts past the windows.
The next morning, or at least what Dick thinks is the next morning even though it's still dark out, he wakes up to her straddling his lap and staring down at him. She's still naked aside from her panties, her thigh high socks, and that blinking light crown in her hair. He checks the bedside clock, it's five in the morning.
"Merry Christmas," she says.
"Baby, it's five AM."
"I know, I wanted to wake you up sooner but you just looked so peaceful," she combs his bangs out of his eyes with her fingers. "But Bruce is loaded and Alfred seems like he has impeccable taste in gifts, so needless to say I'm highkey excited about opening some of those big ass boxes down there."
He chuckles and scratches his forehead before putting both hands on her hips.
"Come here," he says.
And she bends at the waist to collide her full, soft lips against his, to let him run his hands up and down her smooth back and tangle his fingers in her long hair.
"We should get down there," she says, sitting back up.
"I'm sure everyone's still asleep."
And with perfect timing, there's a knock on the heavy door, and not a gentle one. It's fast like several fists are hitting the solid oak at once.
"Dick!" Rachel says from the hallway, her voice even louder than their too loud for 5 am knocking.
"Dick, wake up" Gar chimes in. "Get up, time for rich guy presents, and Kory I know you're in there too, come on guys."
"Well, that answers that question," Dick says. "I guess now's as good a time as any."
They climb out of bed then, one more reluctantly than the other, and prepare to start their day. Maybe they can stay for a while after presents, Gar has to take his test drive after all, and whatever Alfred's making for breakfast has to be worth it. Besides, the snow is perfect around Wayne Manor, and the best revenge on Kory, Rachel and Gar for waking him up at the ass crack of dawn is the most brutal snowball assault they've ever known. He can hardly wait.
