rattle / THE STARS

“quick question. how do i make myself look more intimidating? ‘cause a little old lady just pushed right passed me today and a dude wolf whistled me. i gotta dye my hair and start wearing dark make up, right? ‘cause i cannot be dealing with this anymore. this is my villain origin story.”

the archer easily slides an arm around kori’s shoulders with an encouraging smile, though her face lights up as the other continue, “oh absolutely! we could set up some sort of consistent play times for them, I think they’d like that. and it would give us the excuse to hang out.”

“yeah, and highlights would definitely be my first choice when i wanna seem more adult-ish. you know — i almost got frosted tips back in college.” he has to suppress a shiver. “got swept up in the craze. my aunt talked me out of it, thankfully.”

@stvrfiire

“Mom…” Vivienne peeked her head through the office door, looking around until her eyes landed on the familiar fiery hair of her adoptive mother. “Do you have a minute to talk? It’s, um, sort of important. And kind of why I ran off for three weeks….”

❝ Repeat after me - I am worthy of highlights. ❞ // @stvrfiire​ // send me more!

he says it almost as a mantra, breathing in deeply before he starts, “i am worthy of — wait, are you saying you’re giving me highlights? i didn’t sign up for this!” despite his words, he’s laughing as he pulls away from kori’s hands. “i just wanted help styling it, not a dye job!”

Artemis gives her friend a smile. she didn’t pretend to understand the whole alien planet thing, but she knew she loved Kori as much as she loved the rest of her team, and so she listens with unwavering attention, “hey, Kori? our parents didn’t know shit about shit,” her smile widens a little more, “and we’re better off without them. Clearly. I think Jett and Thea would agree.”

what was she thinking? babs wasn’t sure. when was the last time she had even been on a date? the answer to that was years ago. still this was kori and was frankly just coffee. surely her low self esteem would be able to get her through that at least. she wasn’t some nineteen year old kid anymore, so really the prospect shouldn’t have made her as nervous as it was. still she had known the other for a long time now, since they were kids really, and she deserved the chance to do something for herself for once.

arriving at the cafe which thankfully didn’t have a step up to the entrance. it was easy to spot the table kori was sitting at, the other seemed to stand out of any crowd she could be placed into, what being so tall as breathtakingly good looking. “hey,” she grinned approaching the table. “you should say that to yourself. you look amazing kori and this place is definitely cute,” it had been the other females pick considering that all the date spots she knew about were back in gotham.

Leading up to the date, Kori had been, perhaps the most nervous she had ever been for a date before, mostly because of hers and Barbara’s shared past with Dick. She felt guilty for not talking to her friend beforehand, but also didn’t feel like she needed to see his permission to go on a date with Babs. They were both grown women after all. 

“isn’t dealing with trauma just the freakin’ best?” sarcasm drops from her words, but she’s smiling, understanding what Kori is saying all too well, “my dad taught me one good thing: survive. and that includes mentally. Can’t hang on to what we can’t change, and you’ll go crazy trying.”

Kori took a deep breath as she looked in the mirror, fixing her hair, or at least the best she could. No matter how hard she tried, she never could fully tame her mess of red hair, something she fully attributed to being Tameranean. She said goodbye to the babysitter and her four year old son as she set out to go on what was her first date in years. She felt like a giddy teenager again, unable to keep a smile from creeping onto her face as she made her way to the cafe.

“I mean I can’t be one of his sidekicks for ever if I want to be hero. I’m kind of thinking of maybe, possibly seeing if we can have a titans team here.” She said in a small voice. “Maybe I should try and connect math to food. I mean I really like food so why not.”