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To say Mar’i’s first Christmas was not how her family had envisioned was an overstatement.
“Four teeth at the same time, four!” A very tired Kory whispered as they closed the nursery door behind them. An equally exhausted Dick, gathered the mother of his children on his chest, leaning his on battered body against the wall to help it sustain both of their weights. He let a breath out, observing the air produced from his body blow gently a couple of curls from the top of Kory’s hair. His hands held her steadily by the hips, his thumbs massaging her skin in tender circles. “Are you sure…”
“It’s not because of your Tamaranean genes,” he interrupted her, tilting her chin up, urging her to lift her face from his chest so he could see her eyes. “Kor, we’ve talked about that…”
Turns out, although to Dick, she was a natural, Kory had no experience with children other than the teens they had snatched along the way. And then the confirmation came that some dreams and visions, actually, can be made true (if you play the good cards you have instead of fooling around wasting time away), to everyone’s surprise, Kory was the one who got the most visible terrified.
The newfound truth about her family history planted seeds of fear in her brain. Fear of making horrible mistakes. Fear that having a hybrid baby was a mad experiment no different than what her parents had done to her and her sister. Of course, They had talked through the whole pregnancy about it, and had both decided that letting fear talk was a waste of the miracle they had been blessed with. But the irony wasn’t lost to Dick when he caught himself being the emotionally stable one for once, but when he joke bragged about it, Kory would smack him on the head and blame on the hormones.
“I know, it’s just… Four! At the same time!”
“It can happen, even in one hundred per cent human babies, you’ve seen the research.”
She pressed her lips together, the golden glittery eyeshadow Rachel had applied on her eyelids for the beautiful family pictures they never took, had fallen on her cheeks. Her whole makeup was smudged after a whole crazy night of trying to take care of a toddler who was usually easy-going and bubbly, if not a little too feisty (she had climbed the Christmas three to the top the first time they put it in the living room), but that had been in pain, irritated and crying.
Gar and Rachel had helped, Gar trying to distract the baby from the pain, playing with her, turning into her favourite animals, and making silly faces. Rachel had also done what she could, but they found soon enough that removing pain was not enough, Mar’i still remained restless and irritated as if she knew deeply that something was wrong with her little body.
It didn’t mean the night hadn’t been all suffering, it’s just… This scene Kory had seen in movies of a perfect Christmas morning was not happening, and now she would have to wait to see her baby opening her presents for the first time, if, of course, she felt any better after her nap.
“Come on, let’s go back, I think I hid some extra latkes in the oven.”
“Conner found them.”
“When?!” Dick frowned not disguising the insult from his tone.
“When you were in the bathroom trying to make your hair to flop just right above your eyes,” she added to the comment, by combing his hair, now ruined, with her fingers. It was something she was constantly making fun of him since they started sharing living quarters.
“Damn. I think I’m gonna have to kick him out from the Titans.”
She snorted, some gleam that wasn’t from tears of frustration and pity returning to her eyes.
“So, if it’s deep fried food you like, then it’s motive for dispute?”
“I didn’t eat you doughnuts that one time, Kory…”
“You so did.”
“Did not.”
“Stop lying, Grayson!”
“Make me.”
He expected her to roll her eyes and walk away, but what she did was way meaner. Kory licked her lips, and pulled him close, her hands now combing into the hair on the side to the back of his head, her nails scratching his scalp exactly like he liked it, Dick gasped, if she was close then, now, not touching her was impossible, against the laws of physics.
But when their lips were about to meet, she pulled back, standing on her own and walked away.
“Kory…” he whined.
She smiled, very satisfied with herself.
“I knew it was you. And I lied, I hid a couple latkes, but I won’t share them with a thief and a liar like you.”
And she turned around to leave walking, but as she felt Dick’s hand trying to grab her back, Kory, covered her mouth to muffle her giggles as she ran to the kitchen. She let Dick finally get her, when they were crossing the living room, where their other three kids were asleep. Gar curled like a cat on the rug in front of the fireplace. Rachel on the biggest couch holding a Nightwing plush that she had gotten for Dick, but clearly wasn’t going to actually let him keep it (not that he minded), and Conner was snoring sitting on the floor, his hand still inside the Superman sock with his name tag.
“Shhh,” Kory made as soon as she was in his arms, despite her giggling been noisier than his yet unspoken words.
Dick tickled her, but Kory batted his hands away, until he stopped and just held her, calming both of them, he rested his forehead against hers.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
How could he put the universe into words? He couldn’t, so he kissed her, and although he could never be one hundred percent sure, he felt she understood. Kory was way smarter and knew a lot more of the universe than him after all.