Beauty from Beyond the Surface
Thanks to StrangerInAStrangeWorld. Time for some Kaldur love!
Disclaimer: Still don't own anything that is of any real value. 'Sides my bottle of grapefruit juice. And my muffins. I like muffins.
Thanks to YouCanStandByMe, Sairey13, Auri the Awesome, Gingervitis, and the Guest reviews! (Shout out to the Guest reviewer who pushed my attention towards the fact that I haven't updated in forever. Thanks for motivating me!)
"I'm telling you, Wally. There's nothing prettier than flowers. Since Mars is so cold, there's nothing like flowers back at my home. I always loved it when my uncle J'onn brought freeze-dried flowers back for us when he visited. They would always make my life a bit brighter. Whenever I was having a bad day, I would go to see the flowers from Earth. I love the flowers here. There's nothing more beautiful," M'gann said happily as she gazed at the lilies she had picked from nearby fields earlier that afternoon. "I love how familiar and exotic they are."
Wally smiled at her. "They have nothing on you, babe," he said with a suave smile. "But," he conceded. "Flowers are something else. No matter what girl you happen to be with, you can never go wrong with flowers."
Kaldur smiled at his teammates, and stepped quietly out into the hall to give them their privacy. He could tell that Wally was going to make another attempt at wooing the Martian girl. Even though Kaldur knew M'gann was involved with Conner, he had enough respect for his teammates to let them keep their secret.
YJ YJ YJ
M'gann sat on a chair in the far corner in the library. She stared at Caucasian skin. Black Canary had said that her uncle would be willing to teach her. That he would help her control her powers so what had happened today wouldn't happen again. So there wouldn't be another instance where she would accidentally make her friends believe that they had died.
None of her friends blamed her. They had all defended her to the League, and for that she was grateful. But she was also scared to be around them. She wasn't scared of them, but she was scared that she might harm them without knowing.
It was funny, she mused to herself dully. She had never considered herself to be truly dangerous. She knew that she could do amazing things with her mind, but that had always paled in comparison with the strength of her uncle, Superman, or other members of the League. Even among her teammates, she considered Superboy and Aqualad to be stronger than she. The power that she had was terrifying, to say the least. She didn't know if she could control it. M'gann felt a few tears slip down her cheeks as her fists clenched before rising to hide her face.
Almost immediately, she felt a pair of strong arms around her. It was the gentle strength of those arms that made her break down as she let loose the torrent of tears she had tried to hold back. She threw her arms around the person who had found her in the hidden corner of the library. She sobbed into the shoulder of the person who had looked hard enough for her.
Once her tears stopped, M'gann pulled gently away and looked up into the kind eyes of Kaldur. Giving a shaky smile, she wiped her face, but Kaldur caught her hand.
"M'gann. Why?" Was all he asked. M'gann followed his gaze to her hand clasped in his own. Her Caucasian hand.
"I-I just," she tried. "I was just," she let out a shaky breath. "I don't feel like," More tears arrived, but these were tears of frustration at her inability to express herself. She looked up at Kaldur with a lost expression. Her friend nodded, and sat down in a chair near hers.
"I do not know exactly what you are feeling. But I can understand," he told her. "My position on this team as leader was put to the test during the training exercise. I died like a common soldier. I failed to properly lead the Team as I should have. I forced you, Conner, Robin, and Wally into positions you should not have had to take part in, and for that I am sorry."
M'gann looked over at her friend. "No one blames you for that, you know," she said quietly.
Kaldur met her gaze calmly. "I feel as if they should."
"But you sacrificed your life for others. That speaks so much about how much you care for others," M'gann said earnestly.
"And you care so much for Artemis, you could not accept that she had died," Kaldur countered. "What you did was because you care for your friend, M'gann. Not one member of the Team or the League blames you, as you should know."
M'gann dropped her eyes to her hands, feeling her eyes beginning to water for what felt like the thousandth time. She tried to say something, but nothing came out.
"M'gann. You are a valued member of this team. No one thinks otherwise," said the friend who took her cold hands into his own. After a long silence, he spoke again. "Do you know what I did as soon as I was given permission to leave the mountain? I went home to Atlantis. Not to see my family and friends, which I did, but I went there for another reason. Seeing that world, that world in all of our heads that this world could eventually become, made me think. That world, it was full of war and violence. There was nothing beautiful in that world. I went home because I wanted to see something beautiful. I went home because I wanted to see some beauty that was made entirely by nature, not something that had been created."
M'gann looked at her friend. There must have been a question in her eyes, because he dropped her hands and picked up a bag near their feet that she hadn't noticed before. "I found it," he said, taking something out of the bag and setting it on her lap. It took a few moments for the Martian to figure out what it was she was seeing, but when she did, a gasp escaped her lips.
Sitting in her lap was a jar around the size of an ear of corn. The jar was filled with clear water and a sea anemone that glowed a soft pink. The anemone waved and swirled in the water, as if a current was brushing through the water. It was intricate, delicate, and timeless, in a way. It was beautiful.
"Kaldur, it's-"
"Yours," the Atlantian said. Surprised, she looked up from the sea plant.
"Mine? Kaldur, I don't know the first thing about caring for plants, much less one from the ocean."
He smiled at her. "You will learn. In Atlantis, we call these sea flowers. Anemones are among the most beautiful, and also the easiest to keep. I want you to have it. I heard you talking to Wally a few days ago about how much you loved flowers from Earth when you were on Mars. I thought that now was a good time to give you another sort of flower."
M'gann felt her eyes well up with water again, but this time it was balanced with a beaming smile. "Oh, thank you Kaldur," she said, throwing her arms around him in a tight hug. Kaldur returned the hug, and when she pulled away. He smiled. At her questioning smile, he nodded to the water jar, which was floating a few feet above the ground, suspended by the Martian's telekinesis.
"There is no harm in doing what comes naturally to you," Kaldur said. "It suits you."
"I suppose," M'gann said, moving the jar closer and turning it so she could see it from every angle. "It does make looking at things easier," she added with a smile.
"I was not talking about your powers," Kaldur said. "I was talking about that," he said, pointing at her arm. M'gann looked and let out a gasp in surprise.
"It's green," she said, stating the obvious. She quickly took inventory of the rest of her person. "I'm green. I'm all green," she announced happily. She couldn't contain herself as she levitated herself into the air and laughed. As she came down to the ground, she embraced her friend again. "Thank you, Kaldur. Thank you so much. I know it may not mean much, but I think you're a great leader."
"Thank you, M'gann," the Atlantian said. "It does mean much. More than you will ever know."
Sorry for the shortness of this one. It's been sitting on me for a while, and it turned out to be only a few pages. Make sure to let me know what you thought. I love the big brother relationship Kaldur has with pretty much everyone on the Team. He doesn't have much drama, and I love that about his character. He was pretty fun to write about.
But it was weird. This was going to be a totally Kaldur-centric oneshot, and it turned into a bro/sis M'gann/Kaldur fluff fest. I hope you all don't mind.
But I feel like I need some happy feels. One of my close friend's mom passed away today, and I've shed more tears over her than I did for either of my grandfathers.
Sorry again for taking forever, and keep laughing!
-Alex
