If you’re still looking for prompts, i would love to see DickKory with kiss prompt 20: Kissing in a stairwell, giving them an artificial height difference 😊👀
ily sunflower <333
this uhhh ended up being more emotional than I expected it would?? but it's dickbats so I guess that's to be expected. this AU is a cousin to canon, don't worry about the backstory or the future bc I sure didn't lmao.
also on AO3
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Bruce’s rule has always been clear—no metas or aliens allowed in Gotham. The only exceptions were his Justice League friends, but even then, he got twitchy when they overstayed their welcome.
Dick can’t help but wonder what he would think of Kory being in the Cave so often. Standing over his shoulder as he works the computer. Training Robin in martial arts he could never learn from anyone else. Helping him guard and protect Gotham when she’s not needed elsewhere.
She doesn’t live in the Manor, or even Gotham itself, but neither of them like spending so much time apart. They both have so many responsibilities weighing them down that lately, all of the time they spend together has been spent multitasking. She’s got younger heroes to train, baddie groups attacking New York, and she’s still trying to keep up communication with her family back home. His own days are grueling; if he’s not busy trying to wrangle WE executives, he’s got three younger brothers running around causing chaos, not to mention Steph and Cass. Not to mention Gotham’s veritable hoard of rogues.
They’ve been good about splitting time. Damian can train with her students. It’s fun sparring with her, shedding the Batman suit for something more familiar. Batman has been helping out the Teen Titans here and there, Robin by his side. It’s not that unusual.
Okay, maybe Starfire flying around patrolling Gotham is weird. But Dick can’t find it within himself to care. Not about what the rogues think and not what Bruce would’ve said, either. He knows he wouldn’t be able to handle any of this nearly as well as he has without Kory by his side.
He also knows he has a lot to make up to her for. He just doesn’t know when, or if, life will slow down enough that he’ll be able to dedicate himself to that.
Yawning, he drops his head into his hands. The Batcomputer is so big, so bright, and so close it’s giving him eye strain, but he can’t stop working, even though it’s three in the morning and raining like hell outside. Just because there likely aren’t any criminals out and about right now doesn’t mean the longer cases stop needing attention.
Beside him, Damian sighs loudly. He’s a huffy little kid who acts like everything bothers him, but Dick knows it’s all just a front. Learning how to read him is like a full time job on its own.
Pressing his fingers into his eyes and refusing to look up, Dick asks, “What’s wrong?”
“This is boring,” he says, gesturing in frustration at the files he’s supposed to be studying in front of him. “If we can’t patrol, we should be training. So why aren’t we training?”
Because he’s exhausted. Because they need nights off. Because busywork is part of being Robin whether Damian likes it or not.
He doesn’t get a chance to pick one of those, or potentially a gruffer, more Bruce-like answer, before Kory is suddenly stepping up beside him. Instinctively, they press together, her body a line of heat against his arm. One of her hands rests on his shoulder, lending him some of her strength. Dick glances at Damian, unsurprised to see him straighten up, some of the annoyance wiping off his face. It’s clear he respects Kory more, or at least responds to her better. Dick isn’t sure if it’s because he’s always been around strong women, or because he and Kory are married, or if it’s something else entirely—frankly, he doesn’t care as long as he’s stopped calling her Dick’s mistress.
“There’s more to being a hero than fighting, Damian,” she says, a practiced line. It’s something they all have to learn eventually. “Sometimes, you’ll need to give your body a break.”
“We’re wasting a night of patrol doing nothing,” he protests.
“Learning to profile the hallmarks of criminal behavior is not a waste,” Dick says, then cringes internally when he realizes how much like Bruce he sounds. He does it intentionally at times, but others like this one remind him sharply of the many disagreements they had. How much Dick hated being on the receiving end of Bruce’s tunnel vision. Turning, he faces Damian. “Look, if you’re bored, go on up to bed. Let Alfred know he can too. If anything happens, I’ll come get you.”
Damian eyes him suspiciously. He only relents when Kory gently urges, “He won’t stay up much longer.”
“Fine.” He escapes to the locker room to change, leaving Dick and Kory alone for the moment.
He spins the chair the other way now, facing her. Her other hand comes up to land in his hair, free from the cowl; the feeling of her fingers ruffling through the strands, lightly scratching at his scalp is so soothing, he leans forward and face plans in her stomach. He just needs one minute, one minute to breathe, and then he’ll get up and be better, do better. Kory will keep him safe and grounded.
Damian returns soon enough. When he sees them, he squeaks in embarrassment, a noise Dick knows he’ll deny until the end of his days. They both wish him a goodnight as he races for the elevator, grumbling adorably.
Only once they’re sure that he’s upstairs, the Cave quiet except for the ambient noises of machinery and bats, does Dick sit back. Kory slumps a little, rolling her shoulders. When kids are around, she holds herself differently, almost like their expectations are a physical presence forcing her to stand taller, stronger. When they’re alone, she relaxes.
He’s lucky, so lucky, that none of this chaos has come between them.
He’s paranoid, so paranoid, that it’s only a matter of time before it does.
“You can’t stay the night?” He asks, no accusation in his tone. It’s rare these days that they get to sleep in the same bed at the same time.
She shakes her head. “I’m meeting Vic for breakfast. The League asked him to join them again.”
“Of course they did,” he sighs. “I’ll speak to them.” Not that it’ll work. All of the heavy hitters know he’s not the same Batman they’ve been working beside for over a decade. But he has to try anyway, if not for Vic’s sake, then for Kory’s, who hasn’t had to tell him how desperate she is to still have a friend on the team with her. But that’s a worry for tomorrow.
Standing, he wraps his arms in a hug around her waist; she curls around him, trusting him to take her weight. He’d gladly carry her for the rest of their lives.
“What time are you meeting him?”
“Eight,” she says, muffled into his hair.
It’s nearly four now. She wakes with the sun every morning; she’s lost another night of slept just to spend it with him. “I’m sorry for keeping you up.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’d rather be with you.” She disentangles enough so that they can meet each others’ eyes. In the artificial light from the computer, she tired but beautiful. Always so beautiful.
“And me, you,” he murmurs, twisting her curls around his fingers. “The girls are holding down the fort this weekend. I’ll ask them for another day. We can do the weeding together.” She always weeds her garden on Fridays, barring world-ending crises. He’s missed far too many of them.
Her smile is bright, her eyes crinkling with happiness. “I can’t wait, my love.” They meet in a kiss all-too-brief before she pulls away again. “Let me walk you upstairs.”
Like he’s going to say no to that. “I’ll get changed quickly,” he promises.
Within minutes, he’s out of the oppressive batsuit. Any other night, he’d take the elevator up, but the long staircase up to the Manor provides extra time for them to have together. It gives them time to prepare before they have to separate for the night.
They don’t say much as they begin the trek. Dick is too used to the steps to slip, and Kory floats just above them, their hands never falling apart. He reminds himself strongly that they’ll see each other again soon. Just a few days and then he’ll stay at the Tower all weekend. Things will get better.
None of it helps very much. Being Batman sucks.
He’s not ready to go to bed yet. He’s not ready to say goodnight and goodbye for the next few days.
He pauses on the steps, not far from the top, and turns to face her. Though he says nothing, she understands anyway—falling out of her float, she drops to stand on the stone a few steps below him. Like this, they’re the same height, maybe she’s a little shorter. It’s not a view he gets to see often, and though he wants to cherish it and make this moment before separation last forever, he also isn’t willing to make her stay up any longer than he absolutely has to.
His hands come up to hold her face, caressing her cheeks. He aches for their youth, when things were somehow more carefree even with all the destruction that followed them around. At least back then they could sleep beside each other every night and not have to worry about raising the next generation of heroes.
“I love you,” he tells her. “I love you so much. You deserve to hear that more.”
Tears well in her eyes. Her lip wobbles. “I love you too.”
“This won’t last forever. I promise you it won’t. I won’t let it. I’m gonna figure this out.”
“We’ll do it together,” she interrupts firmly. Her hands hold onto his wrists, gentle but clingy. She doesn’t want to let go anymore than he does.
He leans in, and down, their faces hovering just a breath away for an eternal moment, checking. When he’s sure, he closes the space between them, kissing her and trying to convey all of his love and affection and gratefulness for her. He always tries and he never succeeds. That’s okay; he’ll try again next time.
“Come upstairs with me,” he whispers when they pull apart again. He doesn’t want to ask, but he can’t hold the words in, either. “You have clothes and it’s really not that far away, New York, and—and I’ll come with you, if you want. We can see Vic together.”
“Yes, you silly man.” She presses their mouths together like she’s pouring her own feelings back into him. His arms twitch with the delayed urge to get them as close as possible. She does it for him, rising back into a float and pulling him into her arms. There’s no moment of fear, no scrambling to get his feet back on solid ground. They kiss and kiss and kiss. “Yes.”
His attachment to Shen Qingqiu goes too deep; his aching need to grip his master tight and never let him go is beyond as simple a desire as possession.
oho! this is from the next An Old Hope Made New chapter 🥰💕
