Work Text:
"I'm close to figuring out your family tree," Kory announced as she entered the room.
Dick was bent over on the couch, his tools scattered around him as he worked out the kinks in his new bo staff.
"My what?" He asked as he turned to face her with a blink at having been ripped out of his focus.
Kory didn't elaborate and instead shoved his tool bag to the floor with her foot. She plopped down next to him and held out a bright pink boba tea for him to drink.
He glanced at the pink straw then back at her. "Thought you didn't eat?" He said.
"I don't," she responded as he leaned forward to take a sip. "You said that Bruce is your dad, and that Donna girl is your sister, so is Wonder Woman your mom?"
Dick chuckled around the bobas in his mouth as she set the drink on the table. "No, the honor's all Donna's. Wonder Woman was at the Manor a lot, Alfred liked having her around. Sometimes she'd mother me and Donna when Bruce was too busy to watch us, but most of the time it was just me and Bruce."
Kory smiled, "Sounds fun."
Dick couldn't help his dry laugh, "God, no."
"That bad from the start, huh?" Kory asked as she fiddled with her rings thoughtlessly.
Dick pursed his lips in thought. It was easy to say it was all bad, but he couldn't deny that there were memories that still made him smile.
"The beginning was rough, the end was terrible, but the middle was okay. Bruce... he should never have become a parent, but he was still my dad. I miss Alfred, and Lucius, and sometimes I miss him.”
“He probably misses you too,” Kory said.
“That doesn’t mean I want him in my life—”
“I didn’t say that,” she corrected calmly, “You don’t have to like him, but you can still miss him.”
Dick wasn’t sure he completely agreed with her. Missing someone felt like it was the first step in letting them back into your life. That reminiscing on the good would just lead to him forgetting about all the bad.
This was one of the reasons he never liked to think about his past. He hated remembering.
Dick looked over at Kory, who seemed to be equally lost in thought.
“Hey,” he nudged her softly, “What’re thinking about?”
She looked to the side; she took a breath, “Uhm, I don’t really know. I’m just wondering if I have anyone, you know, somewhere else, that I should be missing.”
Dick thought on that. Kory's past was a mystery, one she was slowly piecing back together. The fire powers were one thing—she could’ve easily been a metahuman, but being an alien was in a whole other league. Anything could be waiting for her on some distant planet.
“Maybe the old Kory didn’t want them in her life, either?”
“Maybe,” she mused. “What I wouldn’t give to talk to Old Kory right now.”
Dick nodded at nothing in particular. He had a feeling that whenever she had a moment to breathe, when there wasn’t some immediate danger to worry about, ‘Old Kory’ was all she could think about.
It was easy for him to forget that Kory’s life was even more complicated than his own.
“So, what else about my family tree?” He asked, hopeful to steer her thoughts away from her mysterious past life.
Kory pulled her legs up on the couch and ran a hand down her long pink curls in thought.
“Well, you have me, and Gar and Rachel,” she said, “obviously.”
“Obviously,” he repeated with a laugh.
“Then you have that guy you told me about, from the circus,” she waved her hand in the air. “What was his name, uhm—?”
“Clay,” he finished for her.
Kory smiled, “Yeah.”
Dick didn’t consider himself to be sentimental, but he couldn’t help his smile at the thought of Clay being included as a part of his family. Or rather, him being a part of Clay’s family.
Clay was a good friend, and a good man.
He’d love to have Kory meet him one day, the man he’d always wished had been his father.
Dick tried to think of others that could be added to his ‘family tree’.
Babs always acted like a big sister whenever she was around, though it wasn’t often. Clark—who was around even rarer than her, was always nice and consistently brought some kind of candy or present for him whenever he visited. Hank and Dawn weren’t family—after what he did to them, he doubted they’d even consider him a friend, but he still cared for the two of them in his own way.
It struck him then. Growing up, he remembered such a strong sense of loneliness; it felt good to realize just how many people had actually been there for him, even if it hadn’t mattered.
“When you lay it all out like that, it makes my family tree seem really fucked up,” he said with a soft laugh.
Kory giggled.
“Isn’t there that Jason kid too? He’s a hot mess, but he’s still family, right? That’s pretty fucked up,” she said.
Dick let out a dry huff, “Yep.”
Kory watched him, her smile staying as he looked over at her. She pushed away stray curls from her eyes and leaned her chin on her hands, something very obviously going on in her head. Dick loved her smile.
She laughed to herself then.
"What?" He asked.
"Nothing." She shook her head, "Just that, I can't remember my childhood, and you went through shit you didn't deserve, but... I think we make pretty good parents."
Dick took her hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it.
"I still can't believe I have two kids," he said, and Kory giggled.
"You're telling me? God, I hope I don't have kids out there I can't remember."
It was anyone's idea who Koriand’r might have been before the car accident she woke up in, but Dick couldn't imagine her being much different than who she already was.
"I have a feeling you're just a natural."
"I'd have to agree," she said proudly.
Kory turned to lean her back against his side and pulled out her phone. She fiddled with it to load an app, but Dick saw a flash of her home screen. In an instant, he snatched it out of her hands to get a better look at it.
Her home background was a picture he recognized; he remembered when it had been taken. They were all sitting around a table at a park. Kory had been holding the phone, smiling to take a selfie, with Gar and Rachel crowding behind her to squeeze into frame, and lastly, Dick in the back trying his best to hide his smile with his hand.
"Hey—!"
"Do you realize how much of a mom you are?" He asked as Kory grabbed her phone back. "Y'know, most people just use pictures of their pets."
"We don't have any pets. Unless you count Gar,” she laughed. “Anyway, it’s a great picture.”
She held up her phone for the both of them to see, and Dick couldn’t help but agree.
“It’s nice to see us all happy together,” he said.
“Yeah, especially since you’re never happy,” she stated matter-of-factly.
Dick scoffed, “That’s not true!”
Kory whirled around to face him. “Are you sure about that, Richard? Because I must have dozens of pictures of us together and you’re not smiling in any of them,” she said.
“I just don’t like to force a smile,” he laughed.
Kory settled back down into his side, “That’s what I mean. You look genuinely happy in this picture and I don’t want to forget that.”
She sounded so sincere, he couldn't tease her anymore.
Kory took pictures everywhere she went; Dick never thought about it before but now it seemed to make sense. Having already forgotten a life once, he knew she’d be desperate not to forget another one.
Dick pulled her in close and kissed the side of her head.
Just to make her happy, maybe he could try smiling a little more often.
Kory was flicking through some older pictures, and Dick pointed one out of Rachel and Gar.
“What’s that one?”
“Oh, that was after you ditched, we went to a restaurant and they ordered these giant frozen drinks to see who could finish them first,” she answered.
The picture in question had Gar face down on the table, clearly from a brain freeze, and Rachel laughing at him.
“I didn’t ditch,” he said.
She hummed noncommittally.
“You never did tell me how your Get-Away-From-the-Family trip went,” Kory said casually.
“It was fine, and also not a family get-away. If anything, it was a family get-together,” he said.
“Uh-huh,” Kory smiled.
“Anyway, Donna just tried to get me to socialize, y’know. Be ‘Dick Grayson’ for once,” he continued.
“And how did that go?”
“Pretty good. I think a guy tried to hit on me,” Dick said with a smug nod of his head, more than a little pleased with himself.
“Oh?” She cooed.
“Yeah, I got nervous and scared him off,” he said.
Kory laughed and shook her head. “That…” she paused, “sounds exactly like what I thought.” She beamed, and Dick couldn’t help but laugh with her. “How did you manage to get me?”
Dick shrugged, “Probably because you made the first move.”
Kory hummed at that and leaned forward to rest her head on his shoulder. It had become natural for them, this softness they could share with each other and no one else. They were parents, and protectors, an alien and a vigilante. Their lives didn’t allow them time to feel safe, to leave the door unlocked, so to speak. But with each other, they made time. It felt good for him to leave his guard down, at least for a little while.
“A guy tried to hit on me too, on the train,” Kory said, pulling Dick out of his thoughts.
He looked at her, “Yeah?”
“I think he called the cops on me,” she answered.
Dick hadn’t laughed like that in a long time.