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She covered her ears as a screeching noise echoed throughout her room and the halls of the cabin.
Kory looked around the room, trying to figure out where the noise was coming from. She then noticed a flashing red dot coming from the smoke alarm, indicating that a fire had been happening. She quickly put on her shoes and made way down the hall to find out what had been going on. Halfway down the hall, she could already see a tiny bit of smoke, causing her to jog down to the living room and see what had transpired.
Chaos.
Utter fucking chaos.
The kitchen had been covered in smoke which began to seep its way into the living room. Rachel was lying down on the couch with her feet propped up on the coffee table. She had been too busy to notice her surroundings since she was scrolling on her phone, music blasting from her headphones. Conner was standing on the counter, waving a kitchen towel in front of the smoke alarm, trying to get the screeching to stop.
Tim was dramatically running around the kitchen, unsure of what he was supposed to do, “We’re all gonna die!”
“Tim! Open up the windows,” Dick said, slightly annoyed at his dramatic outburst.
He stopped in place, nodding his head, “Oh. That I can do.
Tim followed his instructions and Dick yelled out, “Gar, where’s that fire extinguisher?!”
A familiar green-haired boy came running down the hall, swerving out of Kory’s way so he didn’t hit her, “Hey, Kory! Bye, Kory!” He quickly said.
He finally joined Dick’s side with the 7-pound fire extinguisher.
Gar handed the extinguisher to Dick, who turned to him as he stood in front of the stove, “All right, you open the oven and I’ll extinguish the flames.”
Gar jolted back, “What? Why do I have to open it?”
“Because I’m going to extinguish it,” Dick deadpanned.
“What if I get burned? I mean, why can’t Conner do it? He’s flame retardant,” Gar explained.
Dick tilted his head, trying to comprehend his hypothesis, “Wait… let me get this straight. You can turn into a scary green tiger, but you can’t open an oven that’s on fire?”
“That kinda rhymed,” Tim said from the living room.
Gar thought about his question for a second, mentally checking off all the things that he could and couldn’t do. He nodded his head and looked at Dick, “Yup.”
“Gar.”
“Okay, fine,” He opened the kitchen drawer grabbing the first pair of oven mitts that he could find, he didn’t care that they were pink with white polka dots. All he heard was Tim in the background teasing him. Once he covered his hands, he looked at Dick, “Ready.”
“On three… one… two… three!” Gar pulled the oven down and immediately jumped back in response to the contained fire rising out of the oven. The fire grew so high that it started to rise above the oven itself. Dick stepped back a bit, staring at it intensely.
“Woah! That’s sick!” Tim exclaimed.
Everyone had stopped what they were doing and watched the flames on display in the kitchen. Kory managed to snatch Rachel’s phone away, which resulted in Rachel looking up at her.
“What was that for?”
Kory looked at her as if she was crazy before motioning to the smoke that was around her, “Did the witch steal your senses, as well? There’s a damn fire in the kitchen.”
Rachel turned her head, looking over the couch to see the boys tackling the fire. The smoke began to cloud her vision. She coughed slightly, “Why does this happen every time Dick tries to cook something?”
Kory shrugged her shoulders, “I have no fucking idea.”
“Should we do something?”
“Mmm. No. I think they got it covered.”
Tim rushed over to Dick’s side, but jumped back, quickly realizing that he got too close. Dick hadn’t moved a muscle. Tim looked over at Gar, coughing slightly,“Why is he just standing there?”
“Dick, extinguish it!” Gar yelled.
Dick just stood there, his irises flickered a fiery orange as the reactions around him started to drown out. The fire was different from anything that he had ever seen before. It wasn’t a regular fire, it was a fire that had taken hold of him.
In his eyes, he saw a face begin to form, followed by a childlike body that had called out to him, take my hand, daddy, a little girl’s voice echoed in his head as the fire formed a small hand, reaching out to him.
“Of course…” He whispered, slowly letting a hand go from the extinguisher and inching it towards the hand that had been waiting to join with his. Just as he was about to lock hands with the child he heard a voice yell out to him, followed by hands pulling him away from the scorching fire.
Conner pursed his lips together, releasing his icy breath all over the fire, making it quickly go away. The fire had turned from a little girl into a familiar witch that Dick recently had a run-in with, Mother Mayhem. She laughed diabolically as the fire came to an end.
“Dick, what the hell was that?” Conner exclaimed, looking at him.
Rachel and Kory had been standing near the kitchen table, their concerned eyes not moving from Dick. Gar and Tim had released their tight grip on him, stepping back as they decided to give him some breathing room.
All eyes were on him.
He could feel it.
It was quiet.
A voice finally spoke up, adding a bit of humor into the suffocating air, “I’m starting to see why you guys never go on vacation.”
“Tim.”
“Seriously?”
“What?” Tim looked around, confused as to why he was receiving so much backlash.
“Dick, are you okay?” Rachel questioned.
Fuck no.
He finally nodded his head in response, “Yeah. I, uh…” He huffed a laugh and pulled out the tray of ruined cookies and placed them on top of the stove.
“I guess no more baking plant-based sugar cookies for me,” Everyone in the room except for Kory let out a groan, quickly getting irritated with his dessert choice.
“Yup. That’s the Grayson we know and despise,” Gar joked.
“Don’t you mean know and love ?” Tim queried.
Gar quickly shook his head, still joking, “No. No, I don’t.”
Dick managed to laugh, “Alright, alright. Fun's over. You guys can go back to doing whatever it was that you were doing before. I’m fine.”
“Just one more thing, let’s not mention this to Kory,” He pleaded.
Gar looked at Kory who had been near the table with her arms folded, “Uh, Dick.”
“Too late,” She cleared her throat which caused him to turn around swiftly.
His face turned red with guilt and embarrassment while she offered a forced smile, waving at him. Before anything else could happen, Tim looked at everyone, “So, since Dick practically burned the kitchen down with his shitty cooking, might I add. How are we supposed to have a family holiday cooking contest now?
Kory clapped her hands together and gave Tim an even bigger smile, still forcing it out of annoyance, “How about the four of you rummage through the pantry and grab anything you can find to make the best Christmas concoction ever. Dick and I will be the judges, and we’ll be judging presentation, taste, and smell. And I’m serious about the smell because if it smells funky, it’s an automatic loss.”
“I call marshmallows!” Rachel yelled as she ran to the pantry, ahead of the three boys behind her. Kory was irritated but could still manage a laugh. Dick caught her laughing and assumed that she had lightened up, using it as motivation to escape. He began to exit the kitchen, swiftly walking past her.
Before he could, she put her arm out to stop him, “Oh, no . You don’t get off that easy. Patio. Now.”
Shit.
He thought to himself before exiting the living room and heading in the direction of the patio with his favorite fiery-haired, alien princess trailing behind him.
Boy, was he in trouble.
He knew it.
As they made their way through the house, Dick grabbed his black winter coat, followed by a hat and a blue scarf, wrapping himself in it so he could be warm enough for the snowy weather. Kory did the same, except she decided on a white puffer coat that matched with her white puffer boots, white earmuffs, and a pink scarf.
Once he slid through the patio door, he shoved his hands into his pockets, already preparing himself for the conversation that the two were about to have. The two of them had been in a good place recently. After that witch stole Rachel’s powers, he figured that this cabin would be the perfect place for them to reset and take a moment to be regular people. Just until Christmas was over. The team needed it. And so did he.
He had wondered why Kory suggested the patio for them to talk, but he soon got his answer once his body quickly began to chill up. His coat was not nearly as thick as hers. God, did she look gorgeous . Her vibrant bright curls became accessorized with snowflakes, falling on her, perfectly in place.
“Dick,” She said, snapping him out of his thoughts.
He blinked a few times before speaking, “Yeah?”
She narrowed her eyes, wondering why he had been staring at her, “You were staring.”
“Sorry, I saw a bug.”
Kory immediately ducked, swerving out of the way, as she quickly patted down the top of her head, making sure that it didn’t mess up her hair, “X’hal, Grayson. Is it gone?”
It was never there.
Dick tucked his lips into his mouth, looking down as he tried to contain his laughter. He did feel bad, but he was already in the hot seat, so he just settled for a, “Uh huh.”
She glared at him, rolling her eyes as she thought about the kitchen debacle.
It was silent.
She didn’t know whether to check on him or whether to chew him out.
“What happened back there?” She finally asked, glancing back at the door before meeting her eyes with his.
Oh, you know. Just the standard, I just saw our future daughter in another vision type thing. Except it was a fucking psychotic witch that caused the whole thing.
He thought about saying that, but Kory didn’t know about the vision. He hadn’t muscled up enough courage to tell her. He kicked a pile of snow over, shrugging his shoulders, “I don’t know.”
Kory looked down, a bit disappointed but not surprised at his answer. She nodded her head, remembering that this is who he was. He was the type of person to bottle things up on the inside. No matter how much you tried to offer him support and comfort, he would never take it.
He looked at her, feeling the disappointment in her body language. She looked up at him and he inched forward, hoping that she would say something, but she didn’t.
She then forced a laugh out of irritation and turned to the direction of the house.
She stopped for a moment and shook her head once more, turning back to him, “You’re the most infuriating person that I’ve ever met, you know that, Grayson?”
“Oh yeah? How so?” He spat back.
Was he trying to have her burn him on sight?!
Her eyes grew wider, shocked at his response, “Well, for starters, you caused a fire in the cabin that could’ve burned the kitchen down.”
“Oh, so that’s what this is? Some sort of punishment?” He referred to them standing out in the snow.
She knew that he couldn’t take the cold, of course, this was a premeditated punishment.
“Yes! You deserved to be punished after the stunt you pulled.”
Punish me, please.
Is what he wanted to say, but he didn’t. Ever since the vision, he’d been wanting to get closer to Kory again, like old times. And he knew that she had a soft spot for him. Why couldn’t he just go for it?
“Conner stopped it before it could get any worse.”
Kory’s eyes narrowed as she began to walk towards him, “You put your hand out to the fire like some kind of psycho! Were you trying to burn your hand off? If so all you had to do was ask,” Her eyes flickered green.
Oof. Burn me, please.
“I just–”
“And most of all you put the kids in danger! ”
“ You did the same thing back in Gotham!” He argued back.
Of course he wanted Kory to burn him on sight. He liked to see her angry. It turned him on.
“Yeah, and I backed up my reasoning for it. You on the other hand?” She laughed again, “No. Dick Grayson never has to explain himself.”
“And you want to know why? Because you’re a dick.”
“Gee, that’s a new one.” He licked his lips as a sly smirk grew on his face.
Seriously?
She rolled her eyes and turned away from him, beginning to head for the door. Could he not take something seriously for once in his life?
Of course he could. All he ever was was serious.
A headache.
He was a fucking headache.
“Kory, wait. I was just jo–” He grabbed her arm and pulled her back to him, causing her to slip on the slick ice. Dick quickly wrapped his arms around her, holding her in place so she didn’t fall. Their bodies were pressing up against each other.
It felt like the world around them had stopped. The snow had been falling in slow motion, the only thing that could be heard was their heavy breathing from the slight fear of Kory falling. Their eyes. Searching for one another. Searching for warmth, comfort, each other .
“I– uh…”
He glanced down at her lips.
What are you waiting for?
Do it.
Kiss her!
Not a second later, Dick crashed his cold lips against hers. God, was she warm . He gripped her face before soon running his fingers through her coily curls, feeling the warmth and comfort within her. Kory’s lips immediately entangled with his, feeling as if it had been forever since their lips had met. It had been a while but the feeling had been so familiar.
Dick pulled away from her lips slowly, a smile on his face.
Kory licked her lips, playfully rolling her eyes as she adjusted his coat, “About time you did something right, today.”
“Why don’t I show you what else I can do?”
Before she could respond, sounds of cheering could be heard from inside as the kids had been watching them through the glass door.
The two laughed and found their way back into the home.
The kids scurried back to the table, trying to act natural in front of their concoctions. Rachel was whistling while stirring her bowl, Tim had been pretending to stir his, since he lost his spoon, and Gar leaned into Conner, stealing pieces of his cereal for his concoction.
Kory hummed playfully as she watched them, “Well, you guys don’t look guilty at all.”
Rachel rolled her eyes and looked at Tim, “I told you they’d notice that you were stirring the air.”
“Whatever!”
Kory’s eyes landed on Gar and Conner who were laughing amongst themselves, “And you two look cozy. Did something happen back in Smallville?”
“Nah, just your average trip to Kent farm.”
“Nope. Pretty boring if you ask me.”
They both said.
Dick tilted his head as he looked at them, “Right. Well, I have to go change the lightbulb in Kory’s room. So we’ll be back.”
“And that takes two people to do?” Rachel smirked as she looked at them.
“It’s a very, um, big lightbulb,” Kory closed her eyes in embarrassment at the words she chose.
“Okay… what about our holiday cooking contest? You guys haven’t picked a winner,” Tim said.
“Uhh…” Dick looked around the room and pointed at Rachel, “Rachel wins. She’s the only one that hasn’t annoyed me today.”
“What?”
“Suckers!” Rachel laughed and got up, dancing in front of her concoction, leaving space for Dick and Kory to sneak out.
“Alright, guys, let’s go on a walk,” Conner said as he got up, grabbing his and gar’s jackets.
“Why?” Tim asked.
“Uh, you know. It’s gonna get pretty loud in here and it’s pretty outside,” Gar said.
“Plus all the smoke is starting to get to me,” Rachel helped.
Conner and Gar nodded their heads, agreeing with Rachel, “Yeah, she’s right.”
“Why would it get loud in here? And the smoke wasn’t bothering you guys a few minutes ago.” Tim said a bit confused.
“Tim, put your jacket on, and let’s go.” Conner finally said.
Rachel and Gar just laughed as they waited for the two to join them at the front door.
“I still don’t get it.”