Garfield stared back at Raven, his face mirroring her shocked expression perfectly, standing close enough to hear Dick's panicked voice through the phone with those sensitive, pointed ears. He clamped his mouth closed, choking back his laughter as Victor gawked down at her as well, his auditory sensors listening in on the call.
"What…" She swallowed, struggling to string her words together in a coherent sentence. "What do you want me to do about it?"
"You're a girl," Dick said desperately.
"Oh, genius detective you are," she snapped.
"Raven, I can't—please—"
"Why did you even let her go in there!"
"Well—I mean—she has sports bras—but she tried on some dresses and she got frustrated with how they were fitting and um—" His voice choked off and Raven could feel the heat from his blush emanating through the phone.
"Just—" She shook her head with a groan, pressing a hand tightly over her eyes, trying to block out the sounds of the boys as they broke into helpless sniggering on either side of her. "Are you alone?"
"I, uh—hold on." She heard a soft scuffle of hurried movement from the his end. "Okay—there's no one around."
She looked up, glaring at Victor as he clutched at his chest, one hand gripping Gar's shoulder, his whole body shaking as he tried to contain his laughter.
"Beacons of maturity, you two."
"Totally," Gar wheezed, "you want us to come help?"
She flipped him off, only making him laugh harder.
The shadows around her darkened, swarming up over her body, and she closed her eyes, focusing in on her sense of the boy on the other end of the phone.
The tether she had created between them immediately solidified, a bright line threaded with his energy appearing behind her eyes, pointing upwards through the ceiling.
She dropped into the darkness, using Dick's mind as an anchor point, pulling herself towards him.
And then she was reemerging into the physical world, the sunlit open balcony on the second story of the mall blindingly bright around her. She stepped upwards out of the shadows gathered on the floor, right behind Dick's back where he stood semi-concealed behind a large planter in the corner of a side walkway.
"Raven?" he frowned, his phone still at his ear.
"You owe me."
He jumped slightly, his head snapping around, but managed to keep his composure. "Oh my god, thank you," he let out a heavy breath, relief flooding through him.
He backed away from her, pointing at the wall of the store next to them, his face flushed brilliant pink. "She's uh—in there," he said weakly.
Raven grimaced up at the opening to the store, then let out a sigh of resignation. "I'll stick with her," she said heavily. "You go…babysit the boys. They'll probably blow up the arcade if they don't have adult supervision."
Dick let out a shaky laugh and nodded quickly, backing away another step. A shopper on the balcony walkway behind him let out a shout, swerving out of the way with an angry look to avoid crashing into him. Dick babbled out an apology, managing to bump into another person in his haste to get away, his cheeks burning.
He shot one last, petrified glance at the store, then turned on his heel, practically running for the escalators.
Raven gritted her teeth and marched for the entrance. She walked inside and froze, every surface around her covered in brightly colored displays of very small, very lacy, pieces of fabric.
She ducked her head and pushed forward, moving quickly through the store while trying not to make eye contact with any of the people around her. The line of brilliant fire in her mind that linked her to Koriand'r pointed towards the changing rooms in the back, and she followed it until she stood awkwardly in front of a row of closed, glossy white doors.
"Um…Kori?"
"Raven?"
The door in the middle opened, a bright red head of hair popping out, and Koriand'r beamed at her. "Oh Raven, how exciting! We can do the shopping together!"
She opened the door fully and stepped out of the changing room.
All six feet of her. Golden skin and perfectly curved muscular figure on full display, wearing nothing but a bright purple bra and pair of underwear.
"Kori!" Raven hissed, her mouth dropping open. "You can't just walk out in that—"
"Why not?" The alien looked down at the bra, giving it a tug to adjust the fit, the glittering, brilliant green gemstone that carried her glamour hanging just below the fabric. "I have seen people wearing such clothing on the television. Undergarments are most strange on your planet—"
"Kori!"
Another woman turned the corner into the changing rooms, and stopped dead at the sight of Kori standing nearly naked in the hallway. Her eyes flicked down, then up, and she hurriedly turned on her heel and walked back out, face turning bright red.
"Oops," Kori whispered, her green eyes twinkling with laughter.
She quickly checked the spaces under the rest of the changing room doors, making sure they were alone. "Why did Dick refuse to come inside the store? He seemed to be almost afraid."
"He's being a chicken," Raven said darkly, wishing whole-heartedly that she could just sink into the pink wallpaper behind her, trying not to look at Kori. "And it's probably a good thing, because if you start prancing around in your underwear in front of him, I think his head might explode."
"A chicken?" Kori spun around to face her, her straight nose scrunched in confusion, "I thought he was a robin?"
She threw her arms up with a sound of annoyance before Raven could answer, and planted her hands angrily on her hips, frowning. "First the ducks, and now the chickens! I do not understand your earth-culture's fascination with the associating of humans to the flying animals! And what does this have to do with the blowing up of Dick's head?"
"No—it means—ugh," Raven let out a desperate groan, burying her face in her hands. "Kori…"
She finally looked back up, and waved a hand weakly towards the absolutely gorgeous, near-glowing supermodel standing in front of her, completely at a loss for words. "You do… realize what you look like, right?"
"…You are referring to my being attractive?" Kori's frown deepened, and she looked down at herself. "This is a…bad thing?"
Raven shook her head, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples, trying to forcibly purge the memories of the dozen or so times that she had inadvertently caught a flash of Dick's emotions when his mind had been on the alien. "No—it's just—" She sighed heavily, her arms dropping back to her sides. "He's…half terrified of you and half in love with you, and he just…doesn't…know how to handle it."
Kori blinked, her eyebrows raising, and a smile slowly twisted across her mouth. A gentle warmth radiated out of her, her eyes and hair brightening slightly beneath the spell, cheeks flushing with an orange-tinted glow. "Oh…" Then her face dropped back into a frown, the warmth vanishing. "I do not understand."
"I don't know," Raven shrugged helplessly, shaking her head. "Boys are stupid."
Kori stared at her for another second, then burst into a bright peal of laughter.
The strands of her long mass of scarlet hair surged with light, the glamour unable to fully conceal it, the air sparkling around her. "Ah!" She grinned broadly back at Raven, shaking her head, her curls bouncing, "Then this would seem to be a universal constant, yes?"
Raven snorted. "Well, it's definitely true here," she said dryly.
A green-tinged, sharp-toothed smile danced at the edge of her vision, a vibrant pulse of energy echoing through her connection to the boys at the other end of the mall.
Kori's gaze turned suddenly contemplative as the light around her faded back to a normal level, the air still tinged with warmth, studying Raven.
Her smile twisted crookedly.
Raven quickly pulled herself back to the room around her, wiping her face blank. "What?"
"Oh, nothing," Kori shook her head, humming lightly, then flounced back into the dressing room, closing the door behind her.
"What?"
Kori's feet lifted up off of the carpet inside the stall, and her head popped up into the open space above the tall door, forearms resting on the top of the wood. She considered Raven for another moment, propping her chin on her hands with a smile much too coy to be innocent.
"Was the arcade of games enjoyable?"
Raven gave her a sour look, not liking where this was going. "Spectacular."
"Garfield appeared to be most excited."
"Yes well, that really doesn't take much."
Kori laughed softly, one eyebrow flicking up. Another group of women walked into the dressing room, chatting between themselves, and she dropped quickly back down into her stall before they could see her hovering above the door. They took the three rooms closest to the entrance, their voices and the sounds of clothes rustling within taking over.
Raven sighed, and sat down on one of the overly plush velvet benches placed opposite from the row of changing rooms, leaning back against the wall to wait.
The leggings and tank top Kori had been wearing before flipped up to drape over the top of the door, and a moment later she emerged again wearing a full-skirted lavender sundress and sandals, the straps of her new bra visible beneath the little bows tied at her shoulders.
She smiled down at the garment, then twirled around gracefully to face back to Raven, the fabric of the skirt and her long hair spinning out around her. "What do you think?"
Raven sighed again, heavier this time, her shoulders sagging against the wall, sinking into the fabric of her sweatshirt. "That it's going to be very difficult living with Dick from now on."
Kori giggled.
"How do you deal with all that hair?" Raven blurted out.
Her eyes widened, heat rushing to her face as Kori looked at her in surprise.
"Sorry—it's beautiful—" she said quickly. "I just mean…sorry…" she muttered, shrugging apologetically.
Kori looked down at her hair, then back up at Raven, and she caught the dismay on that pale face as Raven's eyes swept over the mass of crimson hanging over her shoulder. And the look in her eyes—the longing—coupled with that dark hair…suddenly it was a different face staring back at her, so heartbreakingly familiar, the similarities between them impossible to ignore.
The sunlit glow of happiness that had permeated the room slowly faded, hollowing out.
Kori continued to stare at her, and Raven shifted uncomfortably in her seat, the shadows cast by the chandelier hanging above them twisting out, puddling across the ceiling.
"I'm sorry," she said again, wishing that she had just kept her mouth shut, "I didn't mean to—"
Kori shook her head. "No, forgive me. You did nothing wrong, it is just…" She looked down, fingers running through a strand of hair, and sighed.
She took a deep breath, then looked back up, and the strange emptiness pulling at the air lessened. "You…remind me of my sister," she said, smiling softly.
Raven blinked at her, caught completely off guard. "Your sister? I didn't know you had a sister…"
Kori nodded, still looking at her with that sad smile, mouth twisting up to one side. "When you speak, I hear something of her voice—she has that same razored tongue." She laughed softly, and her eyes flicked back to Raven's hair. "Her skin and eyes are like mine, but your hair…it is the same color."
A soft rush of memory billowed out from the alien, faded and indistinct around the edges, but saturated with a gentle, glowing warmth. Raven caught a brief glimpse of the back of a dark head in front of her, silhouetted by a strange sky of vivid pink, the black hair ablaze with brilliant purple and indigo fire. Kori's hands—smaller and younger than they were now—reaching forward, gathering the hair into sections in the beginnings of an intricate braid.
Koriand'r's face fell slightly at the memory, her smile fading. She looked down at her own hair again, gently curling one of the shorter strands around her finger, the red shifting subtly into a more fuchsia tone under the glamour. "Komand'r always resented the fact that she did not share our mother's appearance as I did, but it never mattered to me. I always thought she was the prettiest of the two of us." She grinned up at Raven, "and definitely the most ferocious."
Raven smiled back tentatively. She reached up with one hand, mimicking Kori's movement, running her fingers over the jagged edges of her own haircut. The ends curled slightly, chopped off in a straight line just under her chin, bangs cutting across her forehead.
"How does it not drive you crazy?" she muttered. "Mine gets any longer and I can't stop it from turning into a tangled mess."
Kori took a step towards her, then stopped herself, hesitating.
She gestured towards the bench beside the other girl, not wanting to encroach any further without permission. "May I?" she asked.
Raven looked up at her in surprise, but nodded, scooting over a bit.
"My hair does not become…ensnarled with itself as yours does," Kori said gently, gathering the red sheet of curls over her shoulder to avoid sitting on it. The strands appeared to almost melt and phase together before reforming into individual hairs, the impossibility only visible because Raven was sitting so close.
Raven stared down at it, her mouth opening slightly. Then she scowled, slumping back against the wall. "Sure, why not?" she said derisively. "That's fair."
Kori smiled at her, eyes still flicking over her dark hair. The light purple of her dress highlighted the faint orange undertone to her skin. "This concept of short hair is also new to me, but it is very pretty. It suits the shape of your face very well."
"Hmm." Raven tugged on a piece by her face, glaring down at the offending hair. "Well…that was accidental. I got frustrated with it and just sort of…hacked it off." She shrugged.
"Then I am the one that should be envious," Kori said, grinning, and Raven looked at her incredulously. "My hair cannot simply be cut…" Her emerald eyes flashed with light. "I do not think it would end well for the shears if I tried…"
Raven snorted, relaxing, and Kori laughed softly.
"It would have been wonderful to be able to shorten it. But, on my wo—where I come from, I mean," she corrected, lowering her voice and shooting a glance at the occupied stalls in annoyance, "the strength of a lineage is determined by how brightly the hair burns. The royal bloodline is known for its formidable power in battle, and for this…particular shade, so my hair was always…very carefully displayed."
Raven's eyes widened.
She traced over the mass of Kori's hair, taking in the sheer volume of it, and had to fight back an involuntary shudder. The thought of what that would entail—of other people touching her hair—or even getting close enough to her that they could attempt it—made her body physically recoil.
She grimaced. "Your sister must have loved that," she said darkly.
"Oh, she despised it." Kori beamed, the air flickering with hints of light around her. "She always took it as a personal challenge, to make hers the most impressive—to prove that she was worthy of being the heir—"
Her radiant smile faltered, then fell away.
Such a small thing—just the color of her hair—but she had never truly realized the damage it had caused, the festering wound it had cut between her and her sister. A wound that had led to the destruction of her entire family.
An aching emptiness settled in her chest.
Raven shivered, the aura around Kori turning frigid, the temperature in air dropping. "There's no way for you to get back?" she asked quietly. "I'm sure the League—"
Kori shook her head. "Even if I could, my presence would only bring bloodshed. My sister…"
A glint of icy pain twisted through her, burrowing deep within her chest, and her voice turned brittle, as if it might break at any moment, heaviness weighing down each word. She took a deep breath, fixing her eyes straight ahead on the pink wallpaper of the dressing room without really seeing it.
"My sister was able to forge a treaty with the Citadel," she said in a forced, even tone, "to spare our people by submitting to their authority—to preserve our world under their empire. She became their puppet queen, a figurehead, her status as the rightful heir giving them legitimacy, helping them enforce their control without the murders of so many innocent lives…but I…"
She squeezed her eyes closed.
"I am a threat to her claim to the throne…I always have been. Because I look the part, and she does not…"
Her hand dropped to close around her wrist, squeezing tight, the cold bite of alien metal clamping down around her arms again.
Raven's skin prickled, and for a moment, she felt the phantom pressure of the shackles as if they had been placed on her own body—
But Kori squared her shoulders, forcing herself to swallow past the heaviness weighing on her chest, the led weights locked around her hands, and the horrible feeling vanished.
"If I return," she said, her voice rising back to its usual strength, "I will break the tenuous peace that Komand'r established. There will be war, and untold numbers of my people will die."
She took a last deep breath, and somehow, when she turned back to Raven, she smiled again, a flicker of light returning to the spell hiding her eyes.
"Staying away is what is best for my people," she said simply. "And, I think, staying here is what is best for me."
She smiled down at her new lavender dress, arranging the fabric carefully around her legs, steering the conversation back to a less painful topic. "Besides, if I left, I would never get to see this phenomenon of Dick's head exploding."
Raven watched her in silence.
The temperature in the room around them returned slowly to normal, the emotional turmoil evening out.
"I never really thought about what it means," she said quietly, "that you're a princess."
Kori's eyes crinkled in the corners as she smiled back at her. "The title does seem to mean something…different on your world." She shrugged in baffled amusement, her hair bouncing with the movement. "I was trained as a warrior since birth, to fight for my people, to protect them. And now…I am simply protecting them in a different way."
"You're very brave."
Kori twisted fully on the bench and beamed, warmth washing out of her. "As are you. You are the one who placed yourself in the path of an attacking enemy without fear, refusing to let any harm come to me even as I attempted to destroy you."
"Yeah, well, it wasn't my brightest moment."
Kori laughed, then studied Raven's face even more intently, her head tilting slightly to the side. "And you should not wish to look any different than you already do. Truly, your hair—you—are beautiful."
Raven raised an eyebrow, then looked down at the formless black hoodie hanging off of her shoulders. "Sure."
The alien's glittering green eyes narrowed, and Raven shied back under the scrutiny, tucking her feet up in front of her on the bench, arms wrapping around her knees. "Thank you—I—thanks," she said weakly. She tried to smile, but it felt more like a grimace, her arms tightening around herself.
"Why do you try so hard to hide it?" Kori demanded.
Her grimace deepened. "I don't like people—looking at me."
Kori hummed discontentedly, frowning. "Sometimes…" she said gently, "sometimes, trying to hide only draws more attention. But—" she smiled cheekily— "if you allow people to look, and present to them what they are expecting to see—what you wish for them to see—then they do not think to look any deeper for the truth. And they do not see the real person beneath at all."
She tapped at the necklace hidden beneath her dress, at the stone carrying the spell Raven had crafted for her, one eyebrow raising coyly as she leaned in. "Perhaps you need a spell of your own, hm?"
Raven scowled back at her, stopping herself from immediately reaching up to her own neck in response. "You aren't secretly trying to take over the world are you?" she asked darkly.
Kori giggled brightly again, and hopped up off the bench. She grabbed Raven's arm gently and tugged her up with her. "Come! It is your turn now!"
"What? Oh no!" Raven shook her head, trying to fend Kori off.
The alien just planted her hands on her hips, standing almost a foot taller than her even in her flat shoes. "Oh yes!" she said firmly. "We are doing the rituals of female bonding, and that means it is time for the makeovers!"
"What—"
Kori ignored her, bounding over to collect a brightly pattered shopping bag and her previous clothes from the dressing room, She returned back to Raven, bouncing up and down on her toes, grinning excitedly.
"Oh no—" her face fell and she looked at the shopping bag in sudden dismay, then down at her outfit—the undergarments she was wearing still unpaid for. "I do not have any of your currency, Dick purchased the clothes for me at the other store."
Raven pinched the bridge of her nose with a groan. "Of course. He sends me up here to take you shopping and doesn't give either of us any money."
She shook her head in annoyance, then narrowed her eyes, lips pursing.
Her connection to the three boys downstairs pulsed.
She closed her eyes, honing in, the energy coming from them surging suddenly brighter as she let her herself fall into it. Their joy and excitement rippled through her, the bright chimes and beeps of the arcade ringing faintly in her ears as if she was suddenly in the room with them, the sounds oddly muted and distant.
She focused in on the bright, strong, metal-sharp feel of Victor's mind, catching a glimpse of him hunched forward over a game controller, screen flashing wildly in front of him as the other two cheered him on from either side, his camouflaged metal fingers flying over the buttons, gray sweatshirt hiding the perfectly cut bulk of his prosthetic body—then on the pocket of that sweatshirt—where he had stuck that fancy black card that he had waved in Gar's face.
She stuck her hand in her own pocket, hidden shadows twisting around her fingers, and called it to her, her magic bridging the space between them.
"Here—" The little rectangle of black plastic materialized in her hand, and she pulled it out with a triumphant smirk, flipping the card over as she examined it, then held it up to Koriand'r. "We can use this."
Kori squealed in excitement, and Raven pulled the card back before she could grab it, pointing a finger up at the alien threateningly. "But no makeovers."
Kori grinned.
