03/24/14

HAPPY VERY LATE BIRTHDAY YU-GI-AH 2.0!

-cowers at your feet-

I hope it was worthy of the wait.

Chapter 2

Though neither Clark nor Querl said they were dating, after Querl's birthday it seemed to be a silent agreement that they were. On the one hand nothing about their relationship seemed to change; there was no hand holding or meeting outside of work. They hadn't even exchanged cheek kisses again since the party but on the other hand each time they saw each other it just felt different in a way Querl couldn't describe.

There was a lightness that Querl experienced whenever he so much as thought about Clark, particularly in his chest. After running some tests and determining there was nothing wrong with his heart and that he hadn't lost any weight, he sought Lyle's console on the matter.

Lyle, in his defense, had stared at him almost thirty whole seconds before he busted out laughing.

"Why do I talk to you?" Querl glared at the grapes on his plate that he knew hadn't been there when he sat down.

"Because I stalk you without mercy," Lyle stated without skipping a beat.

"I'm telling your boyfriend that," Querl tried to put the grapes back on Lyle's plate but Lyle blocked him with an old fashioned wooden clipboard he liked to carry around. He said it was less expensive to hit idiots with then and a tablet.

"He knows," Lyle grinned. "More importantly, shouldn't you be talking to your own boyfriend about your being in love with him?"

There was a brief 0.8 seconds Querl had to bite back the old habit of claiming Clark wasn't his boyfriend before his face was taken over by a strange heat that indicated he either needed to get out of the sun or that he was blushing.

"What are you talking about Norg?"

"That 'lightness' as you described," Lyle was grinning far too largely for it to be healthy for his face. "Does it seem to swell from your heart?"

"Yes," Querl frowned, wondering if it was too late to go to someone, anyone else on this matter.

"When it happens do you find yourself unable to keep from smiling?"

Well Querl definitely didn't feel like smiling now but he nodded anyway.

"You are in love," Lyle stated, and then added, "That's so cute."

"You have bizarre tastes," Querl rolled his eyes but noted his heart rate had increased at the first part. How could he be in love with someone he had never even seen outside of work?

"I have excellent tastes," Lyle tried to defend himself but he must have forgotten Querl had seen him dip French fries into cottage cheese on more than one occasion.

The rest of the day Querl couldn't concentrate outside of the surgical room. He almost wanted to stay there after his surgeries were completed so he could think but they needed to clean up and prepare for the next operation or emergency.

Eventually Querl got off of work and decided to walk home instead of grabbing the bus or taking up Lyle and Condo's offer of a ride. The main roads were a little crowded so he took some side streets instead.

Snow crunching under Querl's feet hummed in his ears, the sounds of the rest of the street just soft echoes. His thoughts were making too much noise to pay attention to anything outside his head.

That was how the man had been able to sneak up on him and push him into an alley. He managed to punch Querl and push him against the building by grabbing him around the neck before Querl could get a look at him.

In reality the man was really a teenager, dressed in leather and spikes, an old fashion punk.

"Coluan scum," the punk teen spat, literally spat on Querl, the flem splattering onto the top of Querl's scrubs. "Go back to your computer planet where you belong."

It was obvious the teen didn't know much about Coluans. At least if the way he shouted and jumped backward at the sight of Querl stretching out his neck, away from his body, to look at the DNA evidence on his shirt was any indication.

The teen's lack of education was about to cost him dearly.

By the time Querl had carried the teen to the police station, by the back of his shirt hovering a few feet off the ground, the teen was a sobbing mess that has wet his pants. Obviously the teen had no problem sneak attacking someone half his size but was not prepare for the larger, more robotic form Coluans could grow into to defend themselves.

Luckily Querl always wore his old Coluan clothing under his scrubs since they were the one ones he had that grew with him and before he had grown he had been able to remove the scrub shirt to protect and turn it in for evidence. He did this after the teen had stopped blubbering long enough to confess to the assault to be arrested in a desperate attempt to get away from "the giant green monster".

Once the teen was red his rights and taken away, Querl shrunk back down to his regular form. He watched his shirt be taken away in a evidence bag and sat as instructed by a blonde female officer for she wanted to take his statement and document the bruising on Querl's cheek with some photographs.

There was something very calming about the female officer, her long blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail, showing off her slightly pointed ears and complimenting her pink eyes. She almost had to be a immigrant or a descendant of Titan; an old Earth colony on one of Saturn's moons that became its own world, and the people their own race, when they made the entire planets inhabitable and something about the moon gave the people living there numerous mental powers.

"Do you happen to know Clark Kent?" The woman, Officer Ardeen according to her badge, suddenly asked him when she finished with the pictures.

With a nod Querl asked, "Should you already know?" in return as he indicated to his own temple.

"I try not to read people's minds without their permissions," Ardeen replied, confirming Querl's earlier hunch.

"How do you know Clark?" Querl inquired.

"We've worked some scenes together," Ardeen said in a way that made Querl worry about the person Clark had flown away from that scene with. She smiled at him, "He talks about you a lot."

Querl failed to force back a smile at that, but then frowned when he realized that he didn't know any of Clark's friends outside of the hospital. He tried to feign that the fallen smile was from his cheek, cupping it with his hand, but Ardeen seemed to be able to see right through him as she smiled at him.

"My name is Imra," Arden shook Querl's hand in a typical human fashion. "Would you like me to call him?"

The offer only made Querl realize that he didn't even have Clark's number. This whole evening was being nothing but depressing.

"No thank you," Querl stood, "I'll see him tomorrow."

When Querl tried to leave Imra's partner, a red headed male with a lightning shaped scar over his right blue eye named Garth Ranzz, insisted that they give Querl a ride home.

It wasn't so bad riding in the back of the squad since Garth had fun congratulating Querl on "scaring the snot out of that punk" nearly the whole ride over. Garth, however, ruined the experience by referring to him as a kid and ruffling his hair when they dropped him off at his apartment complex.

A large sigh escaped Querl's lips as he entered his apartment. His monitoring system, Computo, greeted him and asked him about his day.

"You don't want to know," Querl grumbled, half contemplating skipping dinner to go to bed early so this day would just be over with.

Querl wasn't to his kitchen yet when his doorbell rang. It almost had to be Imra and Garth coming back for something since Querl never got visitors, not even from his neighbors wanting to borrow sugar.

Imagine Querl's surprise when he found Clark behind his door, holding what seemed to be numerous take out bags.

"Clark?" was all Querl could manage to say. His brain apparently couldn't form a proper question.

"Imra called me," Clark explained, eyes trained on Querl's cheek. He swallowed and tore his eyes away, "Can I come in?"

As Querl stepped aside to let him in, he wondered when Imra had Clark. The whole car ride Querl hadn't seen Imra with a phone. Then again a Titan didn't need a phone when she could mentally reach out to someone. She must have told Clark what happened since he knew to come over, where he lived and was looking at his bruise but wasn't asking him about it.

Obviously Imra was sneakier then Querl gave her credit for.

Clark began to ramble about not knowing what kind of food Querl would prefer, heading for Querl's cluttered kitchen table. As Clark proceeded to pull out Chinese, subs, pizza, burgers and several kinds of dessert, Querl scrambled to clear off his research and notes to make room for it all. By the time they were both finished the table was cluttered again.

"It's too much, isn't it?" Clark asked slowly.

Querl stared at it all a moment before turning to Clark, "You better be planning on helping me eat it all or my fridge will go on strike."

It was a relief to hear Clark chuckle and to see some of the tension leave his face.

Together they got forks, plates, glasses and drinks,the one thing Clark didn't buy, and sat for their feast. Clark commented the juice Querl liked was too bitter and Querl retorted Clark's sugar tooth would have made him fat if not for his Kryptonian genes, which made Clark laugh again.

Overall it was very comfortable. More than that, it felt warm. A comfortable warmth spread through Querl's body and made it so he couldn't stop smiling, even while he chewed. It should have annoyed him but he couldn't even find a hint of annoyance with the way Clark was smiling at him in return.

By the time they could no longer pretend to eat to prolong the conversation it was already getting rather late.

Clark tried to hide a burp behind his hand and cover it with a groan, "You may have to roll me out of here; I ate way too much."

"You did eat a while pizza by yourself, amongst everything else you devoured," Querl pointed out.

"Hawaiian is my favorite," Clark nearly pouted.

Querl smiled, wishing that this night would never end.

"You don't have to go if you don't want to."

Clark's eyebrows shot upward, making Querl's face darken considerably.

"Not like that," Querl nearly shouted, covering his face and contemplated hiding under the table. He only peeked over his hands when he felt Clark's hand lightly touched his arm near his elbow.

At least Clark has the decency to be red faced as well.

"That," Clark swallowed, "I wasn't thinking that; I was surprised because I heard Coluans were really private people. That they didn't like touch to being affectionate and that I had to take things slowly."

"That's true," Querl started, "For most Coluans. Most Coluans don't leave Colu either. Most Coluans wouldn't consider befriending or dating off worlders."

Slowly Querl lowered his hands the rest of the way, though he was blushing worse before.

"Most Coluans wouldn't want you to kiss them."

Querl was too nervous to look at Clark and he was sure Clark could hear his heart accelerating beyond normal parameters. Still he did not resist when Clark gently tilted Querl's face upward.

Clark was still blushing when Querl looked at him but he was smiling as well. He gave Querl ample time to pull away as he leaned in but Querl grew impatient and pulled Clark to him to finally bring their lips together.