Clothed in our grief

Chapter thirty nine

"Dick, what is it you would like me to do? Jason has told me about what is going on. I have spoken to Clark, I have spoken to this Mar'i. It was short, I will admit. She did not have much to say. She seemed more surprised to see me if anything." The golden skinned woman speaks, taking a step further closer to the man who she was once closest too. The cave is usually a quiet place, but when Kori showed up to speak with Dick about the recent events? Everyone who was in the cave before Kori came, fled. Damian used his friend as an excuse, saying he had somewhere to be. Alfred used that as his excuse to leave as well, saying he would give Damian a ride to his friends house. That being you, leaving Dick alone with the woman he was once so close with.

"What do I want you to do? Kori I don't want you to do anything. I need you to help step in, believe me on this. I don't like asking you to come around anymore when you've made it obvious that you don't wa-" Kori scoffs loudly, narrowing her bright green eyes on the masked face before her. He didn't even feel the need to take off the mask and speak to her like a rational person this time around?

"This is exactly why I prefer to work with Jason and Roy. I am going to be apart of what Damian is planning, but my reason for doing so isn't going to just be because you asked me." She started, taking a step closer to him. More closer inch by inch, until she was right before him. Hands slowly make their way to his face. And he could just feel it, feeling the heat from her body that came so naturally from her just inch closer to him. Radiating off of her like the actual ray of sunlight that she is.

"Can you not even look at me with your own eyes anymore?" She asked, making her fingers let wander to the edges of his mask. He visually tensed at the feeling that had ever since become so foreign, and let his hands snap up to her wrists.

"For so long, your name was not something I could remember. Just the actions the two of us shared." She said softly, letting her hands peel away at the black domino mask that hid his bright clear blue eyes. Ones that showed just how tired he'd been. Bloodshot whites, where the red veins became such a difference of a contrast. His bright blues looking more like grey shades of cobalt. The dark circles under and around his eyes, it did worry her to see him like this.

There was a long pause, and her given two inches taller than him has since long made the silences awkward. At the beginning, Dick will fully admit that her height over him did come as an unfortunate difference. But now? He doesn't seem to care. It's just become a normal thing. But it's been so long for him to even relish in the fact there is in fact a major difference between the two. They've been apart for so long, and it's making him realize that he can't just live and let himself think that he can just ignore his old feelings for her.

Especially when something so drastic as a little girl from another alternate reality shows up out of nowhere, claiming that her name is Mari' Grayson. With the powers of a Tamaranean, and the obvious connection between herself and him? It's the entire reason he's refrained from seeing her yet. It's the entire reasons why she isn't staying in the manor with Bruce, and is instead in the fortress of Solitude with Clark and Jon. It's temporary. Especially with what Damian has in mind.

"In Tamaranean, Mar'i is the equivalent of the earth name Mary." Kori said quietly, bright green eyes that reminded Dick so much of bright shining stars just locking onto his sleep deprived ones. Mar'i Grayson, as if she was named after the late Mary Grayson. His mother.

"Damian plans on moving everyone to the tower tonight." Dick changed the subject, slowly removing her hands from his face before sliding the black domino mask on.

"Tell Roy that Oliver wants to see him for a little bit, Oliver's in Gotham for the meantime. He's coming to the manor tomorrow to see John." Dick spoke, turning his back to the redhead and making his way to the large supercomputer to pull up the location Damian has chosen for the new Titans Tower.