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Tamaran really is beautiful, Dick thinks, overlooking the capital city of Tamarus from the balcony of their room. Kori always talked about it as such when they were on Earth, described it as a paradise utopia, but there was always a part of Dick that thought she was remembering it with rose-colored glasses, especially considering the war that raged there for so many years.
But she really wasn't wrong. The city is made up of beautiful and stylized buildings, with a good amount of plant life spread throughout it, the leaves of their trees shimmering yellow instead of the normal green on Earth. What Dick saw of the countryside on their way from the ship port where they landed to Tamarus was just as rich and full of life, everything seeming to contain its own inner light much like Kori does.
The paranoid part of him, the Bat-trained part of him that he can never quite shut off, can't help but be the slightest bit suspicious of it all. They've recovered remarkably well from a horrible war in such a relatively short period of time after all, just a mere decade. And then there's what King Myand'r agreed to in order to end the war, what happened to Kori...
But putting aside his own personal feelings about what Kori has been through, he really is trying to stop being so suspicious. Kori can tend to think the best of people, but she's the farthest thing from stupid or naïve; she's visited Tamaran a few times in the last few years, and if there was truly something wrong with the world she remembered, then she would notice it and not let it go until she got to the bottom of the problem.
So Dick just has to push aside the paranoia Bruce trained into him and trust that his fiancé knows what she's doing, and wouldn't bring him to a place that could be a threat.
His fiancé, he repeats inside his mind, a smile curling his lips at the term. Dick proposed to Kori two months ago, but he still isn't used to it, still hasn't settled into the idea that they're truly going to be married. He smiles every time he thinks about it, every time he sees the ring on Kori's finger, every time someone congratulates them. It doesn't quite feel real yet, and yet at the same time it feels like the most natural and normal thing in the world.
He hears the door open and close somewhere behind him, and then footsteps approaching before two strong arms wrap around him. He relaxes back against Kori, lips quirking when she presses a kiss to the crown of his head.
"What are you thinking about?" Kori asks curiously.
"How beautiful it is," Dick replies, sure she can hear the smile in his voice. "How happy I am to be here with you."
Kori's arms tighten a little, hugging him firmly, and he can feel her own smile against his hair. "I am very glad to have you here as well. Our life together is going to be a happy one, dear heart."
When a few days after Dick proposed Kori broached the subject of them living on Tamaran instead of Earth, they had a lot of conversations about it. Weighing the pros and cons, both of their feelings about it being shared, their worries, their hopes. And in the end, what won out was Kori's duty to her people. Dick feels an obligation to the people of Bludhaven and Earth in general, wants to help them, but that calling is nothing compared to being the future queen of an entire planet.
They talked it through, and Dick really doesn't hold any hard feelings about it. He's going to miss his family desperately, but with the access they have to mother boxes and thus boom tubes, it'll only take a few seconds to travel from Tamaran to Earth. He can visit them whenever he wants, and vice versa. Tamaran's technology is even advanced enough that he could freaking call them just to chat if he wanted to.
That was the real thing that won out in the end, past Dick supporting Kori's need to serve her people. With all the tech at Dick's fingertips, the distance between him and his family won't even be too different from him living in a different city from them all.
It's going to take a while to adjust to the whole idea of it though, of being on an alien planet instead of actually just a city away, but he'll get there. They'll all get there.
He'll miss being Nightwing, but he's already making plans for some nighttime trips to Earth; allow him to still swing through Gotham and Bludhaven, still maintain something of a vigilante presence. And he knows there's not a single chance that Kori would begrudge him that, or even want to stop him. She'd probably be extremely happy for him, in fact.
A large part of relationships is compromise, and compromise is so much easier when he and Kori find so many of the same things deeply important.
(He wouldn't be surprised if she came with him from time to time, spend some time as Starfire the Titan instead of just Princess Koriand'r the Starfire.)
"My parents say that if we feel settled in, we're invited to dinner in a few hours," Kori says. "They are eager to meet the man I have chosen to marry."
The human she has chosen to marry, Dick is pretty sure is the heart of the matter, but Dick isn't bothered by that. Besides, he's looking forward to meeting them, too. Kori has only ever had kind things to say about her mother, and has long forgiven her father for the role he played in her enslavement to the Citadel.
Which doesn't mean Dick has, but he's still going to try his best to remain diplomatic and maybe find a way to move past it the way Kori has. He's going to spend quite a few years living in close company with the man, after all—it'll be so much better for them all if he isn't carrying the resentment he does now.
"Sounds good," Dick agrees, twisting his head so he can kiss her cheek. She gives a soft smile at that, and then cups the side of his neck and kisses him gentle and slow, like she's savoring the moment.
Dick is too.
"In the meantime," Dick says, once the kiss has ended, "feel like showing me around?"
Kori nods, smile brightening. "It would be my pleasure."