Silence was not really a virtue for Koriand’r. She knew when to keep her mouth shut if it was necessary, but the truth was, it was very hard for her to keep from speaking her mind. When it came to Jason, that feeling was ten-fold. Until Roy’s death, everything she said to Jason had always been no holds barred, regardless of what it was about. Kori knew he could handle it and, when he couldn’t, it was often because he just needed to hear it. Things weren’t like that anymore. No, since Roy’s death, speaking to Jason so freely just didn’t seem… appropriate.
The thought of any formality with Jason just seemed wrong, and Kori knew she was at fault for that — she had been the one to stop suiting up, she had been the one to stop coming around the Complex — but she’d been in the thick of grief for a long time, and part of her was upset with him for allowing her to go through that alone. She’d told him she needed space, but she’d also spent nearly a month on her floor of the Complex immediately after Roy died. Home was too painful to be alone in; Jason should have known, had to have known, that something was up.
She may have put the costume away, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still an Outlaw.
In all fairness, there wasn’t really much of the Outlaws left. With Roy gone, it was just the two of them and, in her mourning, Kori lost sight of what was important: the people she had left. Distancing herself from Jason, and even from Dick (though they remained closer than she and Jason had), was her mistake and she should have known better. For all the spats they got in and as often as they pissed each other off, remaining close to Jason would have retained the only bits of normalcy she had left… but she gave all that up.
This, though… suiting up, riding along — it was all a lot to take in. Kori would have been lying to herself if she said she didn’t miss it, but she was too preoccupied with certain other details of their evening to revel in her return to vigilantism. She’d been staring, rather blankly, out the front window of the Dragon as she thought about the scene she’d just witnessed, bright green eyes intent on the night before them. It was only when she heard Jason’s chair swivel toward her that she tore her gaze from the windshield. At his words, an almost bitter smile pulled at the corners of her lips. I’m not pissed, was the first response that popped into her head, but she didn’t say it; though Jason and Kori may not have been as close as they used to be, she certainly wasn’t going to lie to him.
“How did she know your name, Jason?”
“I’ve known her since she was an infant. She was an assassin, just like me. That’s…that’s about all I can say. She’s very near to my heart.”
And it was true. Cass had been a constant companion throughout his life, and it was only after David stole her away that they lost touch.
He’d changed her diapers.
He’d splinted her broken bones.
Fuck, he’d even held her as she cried over losing members of the League, held her hand as the funeral pyres burned.
“I found out she was a Bat when Bruce and I tangled this year. I didn’t say anything to you because…well, because we weren’t exactly talking then.”
and all of this will never be the same again 