One of my favorite crack pairings-I want to share it with the world, and cross my fingers that someone else loves it too. Another AU with a lot of rich kids, private schools, fancy parties and almost too much Wally West. Almost. ;) Enjoy.
"Hey there, beautiful. Why so upset?" asked a smiling voice from behind her.
Kori spun around quickly, surprised that someone had been able to come up behind her unnoticed. She quickly took in the appearance of the young man who was the source of the voice, and her shock. He had the feeling about him like he hadn't been all that tall, but had sprouted up all of a sudden. He was quite lean, but with a hint of muscles underneath the suit that he was wearing. He sported a shock of red hair to rival her own, and a jaunty, brilliantly white smile that warmed her from the inside, but not in a way that made her want to smack it off his face like that horrible Xander.
The girl would grudgingly admit to herself that he was attractive, almost too attractive to be allowed. But his self-satisfied smirk rubbed her the wrong way, and his unbearable attitude made him impossible to stand for more than thirty seconds. But she was getting off track; the point was, this man's smile was happy, perhaps slightly teasing, but not arrogant. However, if this was a battle of grins, Kori was sure to win; she had been complimented more than enough times on her pearly whites and harbored no illusions of how bright her own smile was.
Kori had been using the time to examine him, before realizing with a slight blush that she had been asked a question. It took her another few moments to remember what it was, but when she did her smile lost a few molars. He must have been watching her for a while, to have seen that she wasn't in the happiest condition she could be. The girl's eyebrows drew together in thought, and, not wanting to be rude, she answered the man, but not his question.
"I have not seen you here before," she commented, settling herself for a conversation, even though a small voice in the back of her head scolded her for turning away from her previous source of attention.
The young man ignored her for a moment, glancing past her shoulder, "Ah, well, you know Dick." He grinned, catching her green eyes with his clear blue ones. "He's got to invite anyone that he's ever known to these parties; probably because Dick is bored as anything at these shindigs, and he's hoping that someone somewhere will be able to free him from his misery. I only know him through my uncle, because my uncle knows Bruce. We've gotten along alright, but you know, never really talked all that much."
A part of her knew that he was rambling. She didn't think that she had ever known anyone who talked this much, except for perhaps Garfield, but Gar never stopped talking. She herself was quite a bit of a chatterbox, but she never continued on aimlessly. There was always some sort of reason behind it, whether she was distracting someone, or herself, or she just felt comfortable enough around the person that she could let her thoughts go and say them all out loud without being afraid of any repercussions. So perhaps it should have occurred to her that there would be some reasoning behind his rambling, but she was too busy letting herself relax. A smile, a real one, crawled its way onto her face before she could stop it.
Recognition sparked in blue eyes and his grin took on the butter-melting quality that he reserved for a few, very special things. He nodded behind her to where Dick himself was chatting with a group of people his own age. Three of them were girls, and at least one of them was getting far too friendly with the young man. It wasn't clear whether he liked the attention or not, because although he was laughing and seemed like he was having fun, he was also at a social event, and his smile could be too plastic and his laugh could be too loud. "So, how do you know Wayne Junior over there?"
Kori giggled. "He and I attend the same school. We take some of the same classes together, and he is quite friendly and intelligent." As she said this, her eyes drifted back to him and regained that distant look that she had in the beginning that had caught his attention yet disturbed him so much. It didn't look right on a girl who let off such an air of being cheerful. Once her gaze was off of him, however, it evaporated and he let out a breath of relief. "What is your name?" she questioned, noticing that he hadn't offered it up.
"Wally West." He stuck out a hand to her. She took it and firmly shook, feeling the calluses underneath her grasp, a sure sign of a man who worked. She relaxed immediately, sighing. It was somehow easier for her to speak with someone who could work with their hands.
"Kori Anders," she told him, nodding.
Wally winked at her. "A gorgeous name for a gorgeous girl. You're not from around here, are you?"
Kori was taken aback, "No, I am not. I lived in South Africa until I was twelve, but I have thought that my accent is mostly gone by now. Not many people point it out anymore." A glance up at him through her eyelashes. "I am surprised that you said something about it, no one has asked me about it since I began taking classes at college."
Wally shrugged genially. "Well, I'm too nosy for my own good. I'd love to hear some stories about Africa."
"And I would enjoy telling them to you."
Eyebrows rose towards the red hairline and the grin widened. "Well, there's no point in standing still if we're going to be talking. How about you grace me with a dance while you let me know if South Africa is really like what we hear across the ocean." Kori giggled again, and, instead of responding with words, took the offered hand.
"Come on, Kor," he said, waggling his eyebrows.
The young woman shook her head, leaning back in her chair and smiling playfully at him over the rim of her Styrofoam cup. Wally sighed dramatically and copied her movements, looking around. The two were sitting companionably at a café. The summer sun beat down on their umbrella over the table, and Wally kept fidgeting, trying to make sure that he didn't sit too long in a spot that had been baking in the heat. Other college students had the same idea, basking in the relief of summer vacation before they had to go back to school. Children much younger than they sped along on skateboards and bikes, yells echoing long after the kids themselves had disappeared.
There was a homey feel to the place. Colors were bright and noises were loud, but not enough that you were distracted. Just enough to have some white noise in the background that told you the community was right there as well. Wally wasn't originally from Jump City, but he wished that he was; Kori at least had seemed to have a good childhood (or, as much as she could with Kom as a sister), after she moved here from Africa.
Wally pretended to be wounded, placing a hand over his heart. "I come all the way out here to spend part of my summer vacation with you, and you're denying me?" He opened the closed blue eyes and gave her a look that she knew well. "You know it'll be fun."
And she couldn't help it; Kori laughed. "Fun it may be, but you have been asking me out ever since I met you, and I still have not agreed to go on a date. What makes you think that I shall agree this time?" She took another sip of her coffee and leaned her head back over her chair, cascades of red locks flowing down. Wally drank in the sight of her for a minute, adoring the way that the sun shone off of her golden skin. He followed the line of her neck with his eyes as it arched back, up to her jaw line. He swallowed and shook himself, making sure that by the time his friend looked back he had an easy smile on his face.
"Maybe the fact that Dick's found himself another girl, and it still isn't you." Green eyes looked sharply at him, and all of the warmth had suddenly been sucked out of the afternoon. Wally winced, realizing the impact of what he had just said. But he had already started; there was no point in stopping now. "Are you going to wait around your whole life for Dick to finally wake up and see what an amazing girl is right in front of his nose? Shouldn't you try and be happy without needing that short over-gelled idiot to 'complete you' like you girls say?"
There was a stunned silence from the other side of round table before Kori's eyes narrowed at him. She reached over and snatched his cup of coffee away with a look that clearly said 'you can buy your own cup of coffee'. Wally watched with wide eyes as she chucked it over the railing, hitting some poor kid on a scooter in the back. The other customers started staring at the pair, mouths open and bites of food halfway there. Kori was too angry to be embarrassed, but Wally had no such problems, and began to flush a deep red.
Kori had a ridiculously strong arm, and that kid was off the scooter, bent over in something that had to be pain, with other children gathered around, most of them also bent over, but in laughter that carried over the street to the café. The young woman grabbed her purse and stormed off, leaving Wally sitting there, contemplating his place in the universe. A few minutes later he saw Kom's blue car, which he had convinced her that they could borrow for the day, screech out along the street and drive off. "And that was definitely my ride pulling away without me." He hung his head forward and clenched his fists angrily.
"Way to go, Wally West. She definitely loves you now."