Why Heroes Can't Sip Champagne and Apples are a Girl's Best Friend –
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Chapter 26: I Think I Can Trust You to Trust Myself
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As the title goes, Dick has to train bats yet longs to see Mari some day when the time is right. Turns out M'ari won't stand still so see what happens and….
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She was only a few years older and still her powers were very active all their own. At seven, M'ari Grayson believed she would never be able to tap into why it hurt her so to keep them hidden. She was homeschooled for years after that and cried in her room for days when she'd almost hurt her uncle Roy in the kitchen with a star bolt.
"What's happening, mama??"
Kori just smoothed her daughter's hair as Donna helped with the dishes and Roy was obligated to do the same. "You are like your family on Tamaran. My family, and you must not feel inferior in any way. We are royalty there. And you, you have powers as I was never born with. You are truly wonderful, my bumgorf. Do not forget this at all." She hugged her daughter as M'ari felt the warmth of the sun on her. Her mom was truly amazing. But…
Deep down inside, she still wanted to know. To know about…him.
The man in that photo. Why he had left them and why he still supported her mother. Even so far away, she knew she had to figure out why.
Her mother had Donna and Roy stay over that night late on the two sofas of their pent house in the city of Jump. Kori was out of the home with a pull of the terrace window out. M'ari rubber her eyes and saw wide eyed as Starfire flew from one rooftop to another. The little half alien child groaned and resigned to waiting. Yet, she was restless. This could be so much more, so up she climbed to try and see if she too could fly. Flying was…like seeing her family together, as her feet left the earth far too early.
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Kori was too busy scanning the ground from above as she floated toward the train station there where a train was coming into the station, on her radar. A special one, a visitor from miles, and miles.
Dick had told Tim to stay at the cave and resist Damian prying at him to go too. At his age, he was not young enough to snoop anymore. Rose was the same as the two chatted all hours of the night long distance. He stuffed his hands into his coat pockets, the colder night expecting an early autumn after summer was slowly done passing them by.
A few years now, only years away had he remembered a smile and then…nothing.
Bruce had been gone; he never came back. (In this, they never found him. Dick became the new bat, long term.)
Bruce had never expected his disappearance to really kick his son when he could never say it. That Bruce had ruined his chance at being a father to his kid, not the bat's. Damian, Cassandra, Stephanie and even for some reason Tim and Jason would rap on him about the swap. Deep down, he didn't want to see them as he let himself, all by himself, he left through the train doors and headed for the steps to the street walkway above.
Where she might be waiting to greet him.
As the hustle and bustle of the station whirled nonstop. M'ari found herself floating lower until she had her wrists scrape the pavement. She rubbed them and walked to where her mom must be. A train terminal?
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Kori checked the lobby as the face never faded in the back of her mind. Dick had to tell her, tell her that he could finally…maybe, but the news wasn't public. That if they moved out it would mean trying over doing things differently by M'ari. Would he even want to see her? Wouldn't that be painful, she wondered?
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Dick tracked up with one bag of luggage to the escalator as a little head of hair poked out from one side on his right going down. At first, his eye had missed, then, she called out.
"Mama? Mama! I'm here too! Where are you?"
Dick turned and saw the girl nearly float off of the escalator by the base as he turned swiftly and went down to walk, pushing himself past as if…that girl. She had dark hair, green eyes.
And…a strange flight ability that worked off of her emotions.
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Kori was granted a call late at night as Roy say up, hand through his hair as his coat flew on. His bike keys out. "I'm so sorry, Kor. She flew out on me. Donna is on her way –
"My baby??" Kori gasped. "You were not to leave her sight@ I must-
"It's, we'll go there to trace her steps. Zee is on her way from the tower. She stayed this week, lucky us."
Starfire couldn't focus on luck or positive reinforced thoughts. She had to act. NOW. "She is targeted by the Titans 'many enemies. You were not…. I will go. A mother must always be aware. I was not." She hung up, her phone again ringing as this time, Babs was the caller. Had she kept that number around without knowing? "Hello, thos time is not the very –
~ Koro, Dick was supposed to arrive tonight. I've not even gotten a single text. I'm sorry…you sound –
"M'ari…" Kori wept as she sought out a help desk. "My child is lost in the station. I know it! She wanted to see him…I did not stop, to check…"
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Dick swiftly picked up the child's stressor buttons as she wasn't quick enough. He had to call out, address this situation delicately. He had I.D on. He could see that the security here might –
"No!" M'ari backed away frightened as they tried. He sighed putting his bag under his arm, he popped up behind the little girl. "Hi, officer…What seems to be the trouble?"
"This child is running around unsupervised." The security officer told Dick as one had their walkie talkie out on the spot. "She's, my daughter. I have i.d in my wallet. Here. Right, M'ari?"
The girl gaped and then shut her mouth, seeing as he must be mommy's friend. "We were supposed to meet her mother, sorry…I was back super late from a business conference and she lost track of the time I was in by. I was just going to help look, got a call a few minutes after I popped into the station. Got off on floor J. (Jump.)
"All the way from Gotham, huh?" The officer with his pen out has to raise a brow to the location. A lot of people did. It was the crime capital of the world.
"D-DAD!" M'ari hugged the stranger as the two had no choice but to call Kori to the front desk.
She was so small, almost a bit younger than he was, when…
Dick had met Bruce.
A swallowed lump turned to a ruffle of her long hair. "You shouldn't run off on your own like that." Dick told her softly. "You had us both worried, M'ari…"
His kid, she was so different than a few years ago. He…he almost could cry about it. He'd have to. By tomorrow.
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After a few minutes, the high heeled woman showed up with her eyes completely puffy. "Oh!" She rushed over as M'ari ran too. "Mommy!" The reunion was touching as Kori eyed from above as she knelt to M'ari, to see her husband. As if the bat was the same man, still kicking them as a family, she didn't know what to say at first.
"Mommy! He was here! I told you! He's just luke me, all over the place!" She grinned as if he were no stranger anymore. Her feet stayed firmly planted as Kori swisher her. "Yes, he is…we shall then be no other trouble to you. My husband is here, and we are together."
The parents and their curious little raven-haired youth came to the exit as Donna, Zee and Roy all gathered to where Oracle had told them to turn to. "We heard, you…" Donna buttoned her lip as Kori didn't look at anyone other than her. "We, must talk."
She looked about to cry as M'ari clung to both parents' hands. One in each, as if this were not the first time, nor the last.
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He put down the coffee mug as she tensed in her seat. M'ari's tiny head was on Donna's knee as they sat around Kori's apartment and didn't speak for a full minute. "I…Bruce will be reported deceased, in a few days. I'm leaving in the morning. They need me back in Gotham." He didn't sound pleased, yet Kori got up and walked into the kitchen with her mug.
Roy plucked up M'ari carefully as Donna dusted herself, yet Dick was off to see why Kori was avoiding him. Well, he had one guess.
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"You returned, only to say you are going. Forever?" She stood over the sink and let the water run over the stain of tannins to her mug. He put his down and felt no shame in saying it. He was a bat, a soldier. "She could always come to –
"NO." Kori put her hand down fast, sharp as if a fight could start. "M'ari will not be safe in Gotham. My career will not always last, yet what about you? You could…be the same as your Gnorfka-
"Damian is a teenager, officially. Jason isn't good with ….these things –
"YOU have a child!"
"Kori swung her red hair in his face as her green emerald eyes no longer spoke of small amounts of suffering to find a job or to gather over the grief of a loved one. "I….have a future here, with her. You could have let another, Jason is –
"He's not qualified. Too dangerous-
"You worked for a mercenary." Kori sniffed. "She will not grow up to fight. She will have her family, and…I cannot promise to ever have her in that city on her own. Not without us."
"When she'solder, how about when she's a few years older. Ten. Or –
"Gotham is where death followed you…" Kori sighed. "It is where bad memories would…I could not have you there, she would not see the sun. She is, like I was."
"I know." Dick crossed his arms and looked back to the living area through the walkway, past the kitchen island. Roy was busy scooping up M'ari to take her to bed. Donna was clearing the glasses of tea or coffee and an ash tray from the room. "Bad timing?"
"It, is." Kori took the mugs and dumped the cigarette ashes from Roy's silly habit. He was trying to quit, they all had things they were sure could be discarded to make a better life fir themselves. "We could wait, I mean…if I had her enrolled, Bruce's home. All if it, in my hands, it could be enough to put her through school. She won't have to live there, but she won't forget."
"Older…how old?"
Donna looked between them, feeling lost. "Is, are you moving?"
"NO." Both parents said.
"No, Donna. We don't want M'ari to feel like she doesn't have either of us, but…" Dick took the drying towel as Kori washed. Just as they had when this home had been another in Blud. One that she cherished more than anything, yet that was over. There was no second honeymoon. Was no tearful farewell and a hope to rejoin in the future.
There was only now, and the later pain if not knowing what could happen to either.
"It could work."
Dick raised his eyes to Donna. "As a Titan, you didn't just do online courses. You took your butt from Jump to Gotham to finish school. I swear, how much gas that poor man put –
"I'm not trying to forget, but I don't want to have her remember him as the bat. As her, grandfather." Dick crumpled under the burn out as the two saw his shoulders shaking. "Bruce left us, Kori. I couldn't do that to Dami and the kids, or Jason. He was still not recovering enough from the Joker. It's a long-term project, I just wanted to go home…"
"There was recently a new addition I heard."
"Batwoman." Dick grumbled. "She's an ex mercenary's daughter, about Jason's age. She just became out alley. Batwing too, Mr. Fox's son. And I think Duke is going to be fine. He just aced his exams and is graduating this year."
"You…did not forget about her? She was not strange to you?"
"Why would I…" Dick bit his tongue. "I saw her, her eyes. Everything. She was just like you, as happy as I was on the trapeze. Our little Nightstar."
"Oh….!" Donna squealed. "That was a good name. So, keep it! Keep her as a part of both worlds. What the heck ate you two waiting for, you're still a couple." She pushed Kori into Dick as the two nearly kissed, bonking foreheads instead.
"H- hi…" Stammered the vigilante.
"Gr…greetings..."
"See? You two can work this out." Donna took out her phone and set the camera on. "Say, make up!"
The two lovers had no choice as old wounds began to shampoo, rearrange and hold fast. For M'ari and their extended family, the bar's successor could hold up two worlds with what he had to preserver of that hope. That heart that was all them, all the Titans. They were always there, and something so powerful as a long plane ride would not keep them away.
He kissed her on the cheek as Kori did him one better.
Right on the lips, where it all began years ago.
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The next chapter turns sad, so….no saying it!! Recall, this talks about how long is forever. Not over until the world freezes in a little ice age!!
