"Hey, Boss. I'm just about done for the night. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to finish making the modifications to your suit. Mind if I head home?" asked Ryder Lynn, Blaine's right-hand man.
"No, you can go," said Blaine. Nothing that can't wait until tomorrow. Besides, you've been working hard enough as it is lately. You should have some fun." Being Nightbird lately had led to some close calls, and Ryder had been putting in tons of overtime upgrading Nightbird's equipment to ensure he could get out of future jams. He really needed to get Ryder to take a night off, but could understand why he didn't. Neither of their powers were exactly compatible with a thriving social life. Maybe that's why they got along so well—two misfits cast together by fate.
Just as Ryder was about to push the call button for the elevator of Blaine's penthouse suite, the elevator opened up, admitting Sam Evans to the suite. "Good night, Mr. Evans," said Ryder.
"Hi, Ryder. And please, how many times do I have to tell you, just call me Sam!"
"Yes, Mr. Evans. Maybe next time. Take care of the boss tonight, okay?"
"Sure thing. See you later."
"Bye." Ryder got into the elevator and headed down.
Sam headed over to where Blaine was seated on the couch, staring out at the full-sized monitor wall that took up one side of the great room of the penthouse suite. Wrapping his arms around the smaller man, he put his head next to his boyfriend's ear and asked, "What are you up to?"
"Working on the storyline for our comic book," answered Blaine.
"I can see that," said Sam. "I guess the better question is, why are you starting with the superlady fight?"
"Because I felt it was better to start the story in media res, and let the audience see that we're already good friends, rather than starting from the very beginning."
"But it's an origin story, Blaine! We have to start from the top."
"Really, Sam? You're sure you want to talk about our first times meeting each other?"
"Hmmm. You have to admit the first time was rather comical."
"For you, maybe. How do you think I felt?"
"Okay, I could see how that could have been a bit frightening. . . ."

Blaine had just finished taking off his Nightbird costume when he felt a giant gust of wind sweep him away from his apartment. That was of course strange because he lived indoors, and not anywhere where a gust of wind should have been able to make its way past the windows, let alone send him who knows where. He could tell he had been brought somewhere and was now sitting down on something rather uncomfortable. It felt rather like a bunch of sticks and branches. A giant nest, perhaps? But why, and where was he?
The room was dark, when suddenly he heard a door open and someone come in. "Hello, who's there? And why is there a nest in my room?" the stranger asked.
"Um, hi. I'm stuck in the nest, but I don't exactly know why I'm here, either."
"Oh, you're stuck in there. Hold on. Let me turn on the lights so I can help get you out."
Knowing the trouble that would cause, Blaine was quick to shout out, "No, please don't! Turn on the lights, I mean. My eyes are sensitive to light, especially at night."
"Okay, then. But could you at least tell me who I'm talking to?"
"Most people know me as Nightbird."
"And what about the rest?"
"Well, we're not that familiar yet. I'm not just going to tell you my real identity out of the blue."
"I guess that's fair enough. I'm Blond Chameleon, by the way."
"Nice to meet you, Chameleon. I'd shake your hand, but I'm afraid of getting stuck by one of these branches. They look pretty sharp on the pokey end."
"I guess that would really be a problem if you were a vampire. You're not a vampire, right? Sucking people's blood isn't your superpower, I hope. Otherwise I'm in a lot of trouble right now."
"Don't worry, you're perfectly safe. No biting, I promise. Unless you want me to," Blaine said cheekily. He wasn't sure why, but he liked Blond Chameleon. Even this short little interaction suggested to him that they could be good friends.
"I don't go for kinky until at least the fifth date."
"And when will that be?" teased Blaine.
Sam sputtered a bit, in disbelief at how bold this stranger—albeit a famous vigilante—was being. "Well, don't you think we would want to have a first date first?"
"Sounds good to me. But you'd better wow me, Chameleon." Blaine didn't want to say anything, but through one of the holes in the nest, he had, thanks to his excellent night vision, an absolutely amazing view of Blond Chameleon. And there was definitely much to admire. But he had to prioritize. Right now, that meant getting out of this ridiculous nest. "Do you know how I got here, and how the heck I'm supposed to get out of this nest?"
Sam quickly sized up the situation. "Well, judging by the fact that you're sitting in a giant nest in what is supposed to be my bedroom, I'm guessing this is the work of Lady Dada. Now the good news is her spacetime manipulations only last a few minutes, particularly when they're so big. So I think if you just wait a minute, you'll be taken back safely to where you came from."
"That's good, I guess. I would have liked to get to know you a bit better, but under the circumstances, I suppose it's for the best."
"I would have liked that, too," said Sam. "How will we get to meet again?"
"Well, Chameleon, if you know anything about me, you should know that I'm very good at finding things. Don't worry, I'll definitely be in touch. And soon."
"I'm looking forward to it," responded Sam, surprised at how much he meant that admission. "See you soon, Nightbird."
"You too, Blond Chameleon." And with that, he felt his world slip out from under his feet once more, before finding himself in his own bedroom, sadly by himself. "You, too."

"Did you ever figure out what Britt was after when she pulled that little stunt?"
"As far as I could gather from Santana, she wanted to see if we could get together and produce, and I quote, 'beautiful half-bird, half-lizard babies.'"
"Huh? Babies? She does realize that I'm not actually a bird, right? And how would we produce babies? It's not like two guys can have kids on their own."
"Well. . . ."
"What aren't you telling me, Sam?"
"Um, I think she might have discovered mpreg around that time."
"Mpreg?! As in guys becoming pregnant mpreg?"
"Yeah, that'd be the one. And since Britt can warp the laws of reality, I figured it wasn't worth pursuing. Not tempting fate, and all that."
"But you didn't think it was worth warning me? 'Hey, my friend might want to get you pregnant?'"
"Well, I didn't know that was what she wanted at the time, and even if she did, it's not as if she'd actually be able to pull it off. She'd get bored and lose interest way too quickly for that."
"Still not making me feel any better here, Sam."
"It's like this. Her power works on nonliving objects because they don't change much with time, so they don't resist what she's trying to do. With living matter, it's already constantly changing, so she constantly has to focus on it to keep it from snapping back. So she'd have to be focused on us staying pregnant for nine months to make it work. And that seems like an awfully long time for anybody."
"Okay, that doesn't sound so bad then."
"Or I guess she could figure out how to speed up the process."
"Sam!"
"Fine, whatever. I'm sorry. I should have told you. But that doesn't change the fact that you're trying to steer the discussion away from what really matters?"
"Oh, really?" said Blaine cheekily. "And what's that?"
"You were into me the first time we met, that's what," said Sam with conviction.
"True, you did have a very attractive exterior. But I'd like to think my attraction to you was based more on your personality and character than just shallow appearances. Then again, it might have just been animal magnetism."
"I thought we agreed we were going to leave that out."
"Equal opportunity, Sam. If I'm getting embarrassed, no way you're getting off scot-free."

As part of his superhero training, Sam was going to spend the lunch break working on his tracking skills. Artie was coming along as his guide and observer. Artie had already provided Sam with all the intel and materials he'd need for his job: figure out where his lunch would be held by tracking down his guest, which today was Kitty. (Sam suspected he'd be asked to leave shortly after he arrived, so that Artie and Kitty could have some alone time. He didn't mind, much.)
Unfortunately, this exercise was proving to be a lot harder than it appeared at first glance. He just couldn't get a solid lead—it felt like there were two sets of signals mixing up his senses. The target signal was there, but it felt like it was getting swamped by a more powerful signal.
After a few blocks, though, Sam realized that he was getting things mixed up—he really, really needed to follow that stronger signal. Just a little bit more and it'd be the only signal. There, there it was. He knew exactly where he had to go, and how to get there. He signaled to Artie that he had found his quarry, and was pursuing it. He didn't have time to notice the confused look on Artie's face.
Sam kept following the signal as it got stronger and stronger, but also seemed to be moving somewhat. He thought it was a bit strange—it wasn't part of the mission for the target to be moving, after all—but supposed maybe it was all a trick.
He couldn't help but contain his surprise, however, when he finally spotted his target, and realized that the signals weren't leading him to Kitty but to a short dark-haired young man wearing a pitch-black visor over his eyes. He felt an overwhelming urge to help, to protect, and to care for the young man, and it was confusing him, sine he couldn't recall meeting him before.
As he finally approached the young man, he realized he was moving much too quickly. He tried to slow down, but wasn't in time, and found himself colliding with the young man. He tried to help the young man up, but found Artie had beaten him to the punch. For some reason, this bothered him, and he made his disapproval known. Artie gave him a sideways glance, but proceeded to ignore him and turned to the young man.
"I apologize for my friend here. He clearly got a little excited to see you."
"I can see that," said the young man. His voice seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. All he knew is that he wanted to keep hearing that voice as long as possible. "I'm Blaine, by the way."
"I'm Artie, and my overeager friend here is Sam." Sam let Artie knew what he thought of the obvious insult. Artie tried to tug Sam away, but Sam wasn't having any of that, as he tried to make his way closer to Blaine.
Artie was getting ready to leave, which made Sam very unhappy, as he leveled a death glare at his friend. Understanding Sam's meaning, he turned to Blaine, saying, "I'm sorry to cut this short, but we have to go. It looks like my friend Sam would like to get to know you better, though. Are you here often?"
Blaine grinned, "Yeah, I'm usually here this time of day for my lunch break. Unless it's raining, of course. Your friend seems really cool, though. You're more than welcome to come back sometime."
"I guess we'll take you up on that offer sometime soon," said Artie, as he pulled Sam away, "Thanks. And have a nice day."
"You too," said Blaine, with a tone that seemed to Sam to be somewhat sad, like he was already starting to miss Sam. But that was crazy, wasn't it?

"That sounds perfectly innocent to me, Blaine. What was so bad about that meeting?" said Sam, trying to ignore what he knew was coming.
"Sam, Artie said he had to chase you for three miles!"
"So what?"
"Well, given that your mission was to track Kitty, who was about two blocks away when you started running, it seems that your canine form found me irresistible. Especially since you were tracking me down based on having only met me once for like five minutes a month before you found me in the park."
"Okay, okay. They stopped trying to train me to track people because the only one I seemed to be capable of finding is you. I could find you anywhere in about a five-mile radius, and if you weren't around, I'd just start whining and whimpering. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
"Well, it just proves that you were just as into me as I was into you back then. So the feelings were definitely mutual, I'd say."
"Yes, that's true. But do you think we really have to share any of that with the public. Can't we stretch the truth a little, and make them think the Yana case was the first time we met? After all, it was the first time we met as Nightbird and Chameleon, and that's what people are interested in, right?"
"I suppose we could do that. No point in embarrassing both of ourselves, right?"
"Exactly. Now what do you say we go grab some dinner, and then come back here and play a little interrogator and suspect."
"Can we skip dinner?"
"Not a chance. You'll need your stamina," grinned Sam. "Now go get dressed, and I'll meet you downstairs in five minutes."