Title: Bursting fruitage Fandom: DCU Characters: Nightwing, Starfire, Oracle Rating: Adult Summary: When Oracle has a problem, she consults with the experts in the field. Note: For the "It's a Tamaranian custom" challenge. Takes place somewhere between Nightwing #50 and #87. "She's here," Barbara says, glancing at her monitor. Tall, golden, and gorgeous as ever, and just about as scantily clad. "And this is still a terrible idea." Dick kisses her cheek. "She'll be able to help." "Right. I'm sure she's never had this problem." Barbara shakes her head. "Why I let you talk me into these things, Grayson --" "Because you love me." He gives her a bright smile for a moment, then drops it and kneels to be at eye level. "And like I said -- this isn't about her. Not at all. It's for you." "Sure." She pats his hand. "I believe you. Mostly." The doorbell rings. Dick bounces up again, and Barbara manages to almost suppress the surge of envy she still feels at that grace. "You want me to get it?" Barbara raises an eyebrow at him. "No, I can answer the door." A voice in her head tells her she's being petty, and also extremely foolhardy. It sounds entirely too much like Bruce. But when she does get the door open, she's faced with tawny, toned midriff and breasts and -- "Hello, Koriand'r." "Barbara." The supermodel smile makes her fingers twitch, and the all too alien smell of her -- that's Bruce in Barbara's head again, disapproving of the unknown, as well as the entirely too known. Starfire is capable of terrible things and has proven it time and again. At the moment, the only terrible thing she's doing is bending down from her great height -- six feet and a half in heels, if she's an inch -- and kissing Barbara's cheek. Both of them. And then her lips. Of course it's strange. Stranger yet to feel someone else's lipstick -- tacky, in this humidity -- and not erotic. Whatever it was Dick is expecting is just not happening. Koriand'r may be his greatest fantasy, his own personal alien sex goddess, heaven knows, but -- no sparks here. Not a one. Barbara breaks the kiss to ask her to leave, and Koriand'r smiles. "Thank you." Maybe it's not fair to scowl at her, but she's too beautiful. She deserves it. "For what?" "Letting me feel the way you think, for a moment." Koriand'r touches her cheek lightly and straightens up again, beaming that model-perfect smile over her head. "Hello, Dick." "Hi, Kory." Barbara can feel him smiling back and she starts hating them both. They've got whatever chemistry it is Dick's expecting her to have with this tawny pin-up. He has to learn sometime that he can't make her be whatever he wants. But right now, he's just grinning like an idiot at the walking, talking image of perfection on Barbara's doorstep. She wants to scream, "I'm down here," but she doesn't. She grits her teeth a moment and says, "Should I leave you alone in my apartment?" It's better than screaming. Dick touches her shoulder, Koriand'r looks alarmed, and their little moment is broken. "Sorry, Babs," Dick says, not softly enough. "Barbara, I do not mean to offend you." Koriand'r touches her face again. She's dealt with worse monsters without flinching, but the way her hair is waving, like it's some kind of sentient being on its own, makes Barbara want to back away. "I assure you, this will go exactly as far as you are comfortable with, and no farther." Barbara is a mature adult, and she does not roll backward as quickly as she can. Neither does she yell at the gorgeous woman to leave, if only because Dick would look hurt. She can deal with this after a deep breath. Okay, three. "It wasn't my idea. That's all." Koriand'r smiles sympathetically, and -- all right, Barbara can see how someone could be attracted to that. "Many things happen to us that are not our choice, but it should not be so in intimate settings." Barbara shakes her head. "Right. Fine. Let's get this over with." "Babs," Dick says, reproachfully. And now he's got backup, which is not fair. "I can see why you're having difficulty," says the alien princess. "Look, it's got nothing to do with tension." Barbara goes into the bedroom, where at least it's her space, her pillows, her pictures on the side table. "Tension is a cause in a lot of women, but mostly women who have otherwise functional nervous systems. If you haven't noticed --" and that was a little too sharp, she can see Dick wincing "-- I haven't got one. It's a problem with remaining ennervation of the genital region. Nothing more. Nothing less. There's nothing mystical about spinal injuries." The princess looks pitying. Barbara's fingers itch for her various weapons, most of which are well within reach. "But with patience, with affection --" At least she can swing herself into bed without help, here, and neither of them reaches out to her. Small mercies. "Patience and affection nothing!" Barbara shakes her head. "I've tried patience. I've tried affection. I've tried twelve kinds of marital aids and six kinds of therapy. It's just not going to happen." She folds her arms. "And you're not going to fix anything." Koriand'r sighs, which makes her bosom heave. "On Tamaran, when women had this problem, there were solutions." Her eyes are glowing. Barbara looks at the picture on the end table and wishes it wasn't one of Dick. "We're not on Tamaran, Starfire." "No. But there are things I can do that perhaps others cannot." She has the temerity to sit on Barbara's bed. Her hair is moving like there's some kind of breeze, even though there isn't. "Please, let me try." Barbara wonders whether sad puppy dog eyes are something native to the Tamaranian species, or whether that's something Koriand'r picked up from Dick. Either way, he's leaning in the doorway, she's sitting on the bed, and they've got the same damn expression of pathos. She wants to just abandon the room, abandon the bed, abandon the Clocktower if she has to, but she knows they're not going to let her out of this. "Fine. You can try. But I don't expect you to succeed." She can hear Dick's wince at that, the tiny intake of breath like she's hit him. It makes her want to really hit him. Maybe then he wouldn't push so much. But Koriand'r is beaming, and it is, if Barbara even tries to be a little objective, a beautiful thing to see her looking happy. "I'll do my best." She holds out a hand to Barbara, who takes it -- her skin is warm and feels a little too soft -- and one to Dick, who comes over. "We all will." Barbara shakes her head. "It's not your problem." Koriand'r sighs softly. Barbara tries not to notice her breasts. "It's a Tamaranian custom to help friends in need, particularly when their problems lie within one's strengths." "Your strengths." Barbara keeps her voice level. Koriand'r squeezes her hand. "There are certain things I can offer you that you would not find elsewhere." Doubtless true, according to every record on Starfire's collections of alien biology. Whether or not the effects are entirely safe  is another matter. But Barbara doesn't snatch her hand back, yet. "Such as?" "There's a type of salve made from the xocoatl plant --" Barbara blinks. "The what?" Koriand'r smiles a little more brightly. "The xocoatl plant, native to Tamaran. It grows only slowly in Earth soil, but it still flowers, and the flowers are the part we use to make the salve." "What does it do?" Barbara looks from Koriand'r to Dick, who is blushing. "It enhances sensation," Koriand'r says, and she winks at Dick. Barbara tries not to glare at them. "I take it you've tried this before?" Dick squeezes Barbara's shoulder. "It's a -- um. It was a celebration. Kind of thing." "I see." "But it doesn't need to be used that way." Barbara tilts her chin up and catches Dick's eye. After a second, he gets it and kisses her gently. "Good. We didn't really have anything to celebrate right now." Dick frowns. "Babs --" Koriand'r clears her throat. "Sometimes it's enough to celebrate everyday life." "Give me a break," Barbara says, pulling her hand away from Koriand'r. "You're not going to make this special by pretending it is. Let's get it over with, and if you manage something more interesting than all the humans around here, I'll be really grateful and really surprised." She can hear Dick shift his weight uncomfortably at that and ignores him. Instead of adding anything to soften the accusation, she peels off her shirt. Even in just a bra, she's less naked than Starfire usually is. Without it, she doesn't feel all that exposed by comparison. "If you're sure," Dick says, and he touches Barbara's cheek. But Koriand'r is grinning at her. A warrior's grin, a predator's grin -- fierce. It makes her less cloying, and any change in that direction is good. "We'll see." Barbara feels, for a moment, like she's dealing with a friend. Dinah, or Helena -- someone who can grin like that and not have it be because she's winning, but because they both are. Then Dick fidgets again and says, "It'll be all right." "It'd better be." Barbara unfastens her pants and pulls them off. It's still not the most graceful process in the world, but it works just fine. While she's doing that, Koriand'r takes out a little jar of sparkly gold something or other. "This will help, Barbara," she says, and dips her fingers into it. "Have you tested this before?" Dick coughs. "Yeah. It's safe." And Barbara does her best not to roll her eyes. Koriand'r paints symbols on Barbara's breasts with the golden salve, her eyes narrow with focus. It tingles at first, then settles into a deeper heat that reaches beyond where the salve itself touches, filling in the sensation along every nerve ending nearby. Koriand'r brushes her nipples, each in turn, and it's such an intense sensation she has to close her eyes and just feel touch, pure and simple. "It's taking effect," she says when the wave of feeling passes. It's just as well that Dick's sitting still, at the moment, doing no more than petting Barbara's hair; Koriand'r is odd enough on her own, and this is already extremely confusing. "Good," Koriand'r says, her voice soft and low. She draws another symbol on Barbara's stomach, then stops touching her entirely. Barbara opens her eyes, and, no, Koriand'r is drawing on her thighs. "That's not going to do any good." "Perhaps not for you. Perhaps." Koriand'r's smile is entirely too smug. She bends her head, her hair rustling of its own volition, and drops a warm kiss between Barbara's breasts that's overwhelmingly hot when her lips touch skin, but settles into a sultry heat that makes Barbara want to stretch her legs out and lounge in what feels like perfect sunshine and bliss. She shakes off the feeling, but it doesn't entirely leave. "Your salve -- whatever it is -- how long do the effects last?" Dick says, "A few hours," and kisses her forehead. Every tiny part of the kiss is surrealistically important, as if she's growing new nerves all the time and none of them can bear to let anything go past unnoticed. She wonders if this is how it felt to be Cassandra before she had words for things, existing in a world where there was only movement and touch and nothing more. "A few hours," Barbara says, and the vibrations of her own voice make her throat tingle. "All right." "Just relax," Koriand'r says and touches her nipples again. Barbara wants to tell her to keep her stupid comments to herself, but her entire body is flooded with liquid heat from the touch. It's not a suggestion; it's an order, and Barbara can't help but obey. "Not fair," she protests. Koriand'r laughs. "Dick." And there's a moment of that unspoken communication that Dick's so good at with so many people, except normally it's about a fight, not about sex. He moves down the bed a little and kisses Barbara, fondling her breasts lightly. What is normally sweet is decadent; what is normally familiarly gentle makes her gasp with pleasure. Dick breaks the kiss after a while to grin at her. She could swear he's more beautiful than ever, but it's probably just that she can feel so much in the tiny movements of his hand, as if she never noticed him before. "How are you feeling?" he asks, as if he doesn't know. He's got to have some of the stuff on his fingers by now, and it must feel different than normal, even if it's not all over his body. "Post-orgasmic," she says, and he blinks. "What --" "No." Barbara shakes her head and enjoys the way her own hair feels against her shoulders. "Not yet. It just feels like that, warm all over." "It takes some time to take full effect," Koriand'r says, and runs her hand up Barbara's side. Cascades of feeling follow her touch and Barbara leans into it a little, trying to see whether the effect is just on the very surface tactile nerves or whether it goes deeper. The more she presses, the stronger it gets, and Koriand'r laughs softly. "Cut that out," Barbara says, fully aware that she sounds too lackadaisical to have a decent command voice. "Kiss me." They share another of those glances, longer than a debate, over her head, until she takes Koriand'r's hand and squeezes it. "Both of you, or what are you here for?" Koriand'r's smile is luminous -- so maybe the salve is affecting vision, too. Her hair waves gently, and it might tickle on a normal day, but now it caresses. She tastes wild, strange, wicked, open and insanely warm. "I'm here to help a friend," she says, and she's running her hand down Dick's side -- when did he take his shirt off? -- but she's stroking Barbara's breasts just as attentively. Barbara laughs. Her voice sounds thick in her ears, and she can't figure out why. But then Dick kisses her, and it's as maddening, as exciting as the first time they ever kissed. Her breathing is getting fast -- even though part of her wants to say it's only a kiss, it's not, it's sweet and wonderful and Dick, and it feels better than it ever has, as daring as anything she's ever done. Everything, everywhere is tingling, and she can feel the calluses of his hand on her chest, her side, her nipple. He's tender; he always is. Gentle, skillful, and it should always feel this good, always make her feel this alive. The way his skin feels against hers is some kind of miracle. An alien miracle, maybe, but that's good enough, and maybe it's easier to replicate. When Koriand'r -- no, Starfire -- puts her mouth on Barbara's other breast -- Starfire is the only name that fits the way everything flares. Every muscle tenses, every breath comes shorter than the one before -- and everything is flushed, flooded, perfect in bright, complete ways it hasn't been in years, not even for this fleeting moment. She wants it to last forever, because it's been so long since she felt so whole. Even when it fades, it doesn't go far. Her first impulse is to hug Dick, to kiss him again and yell with what a relief it is to be alive, but it's not exactly fair, so she twists away from Koriand'r's mouth -- not the easiest thing to give up -- and reaches for both of them. "God, Babs," Dick says in her ear, awed and blissful. "Is that all you wanted?" Koriand'r asks, and she's grinning at Barbara, and she's -- yes, she's beautiful, and she's real behind her strange eyes, now. If she ever needs a job -- "I -- what?" Barbara asks, still floating a little on the glow, or perhaps it's because her body's still tingling and they're pressed up against her, friendly and loving. "The salve's effects will last for another few hours," Koriand'r says, and makes a show of licking her thumb, then brushing it across Barbara's nipple. It feels almost as amazing as the last touch. "Oh. Then --" She takes a deep breath and gives Dick a little, grateful squeeze. "Then what are we waiting for?" <center>* * * * * </center> By the time the stuff wears off, even Koriand'r is looking a little bedraggled. Barbara's exhausted in the best possible way, and Dick is only alert because he never gets enough sleep anyway. Barbara catches herself yawning and covering her mouth with her hand without any tingles. Koriand'r smiles. "Should I go?" "I should get to work," Barbara says, and Dick pins her shoulders to the bed. "You need to sleep, Babs." He kisses her. "If you think you can get up, it hasn't really worn off yet." She wrinkles her nose at him. "You didn't tell me I'd be this tired." "I'm sorry," Koriand'r says. Barbara turns enough to touch her lush, soft skin. The texture is almost familiar now. "Don't be. I haven't felt so good since --" She shakes her head. "A long time." Koriand'r kisses her cheek. "Then I'm glad." "Thank you." It's not so hard to say it when she really means it, even if she is falling asleep. "Maybe you could give me a lift home," Dick says. Barbara puts an arm across his chest. "You got a good dose too. You'd better stay here." Koriand'r laughs. "On Tamaran, we found it exhilarating. But -- last time you slept for a day and a half, Dick." He blushes. "That was a lot more of it than --" he interrupts himself with a yawn. "Ha." Barbara pokes him in the side. "Stay here." "Should I go?" Koriand'r asks again. If she's a morning person, and her hair looks that good first thing, Barbara is going to kill her, but they'll deal with that at sunrise. "No. Just -- just stay." Barbara puts an arm around Dick, who doesn't actually stay the night, almost ever. If she has to deal with Starfire being there, too, well, at least the bed is big enough. "Lights off," she says to the computer. "Goodnight," Koriand'r says. "Goodnight," Dick answers, and Barbara kisses him. "'night. And thank you both." They answer her with a little squeeze, one on each side. She has just enough time to realize that she's content before she falls asleep.
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