I got a lot of amazing comments last chapter, thank you to everyone who reviewed. I'd also like to point out that I will give chapter dedications to people who draw me fanart. -hint, hint, wink, wink-
Chapter 9
"And he just fell asleep… why?" questioned Static.
"I'd be tired after being constantly stressed for a long period of time," commented Gear and, upon seeing Superman's surprised expression, added, "Just a guess based off a short period of observation, of course."
"Don't question it," said Static quickly. "He can be creepily observant when he wants to be. Not as much as Bats, but still."
"Who?" asked Superman.
Static and Gear glanced at each other and then grinned in a way that greatly worried Superman.
"Why, your future best friend of course," said Static sweetly.
"Then why do I suddenly have a sinking feeling?" asked Superman.
"No reason I can think of," said Gear innocently.
"No reason at all," Static agreed.
It only caused Superman to worry more, especially after Static and Gear took that moment to exchange grins that were way too big to have good intentions.
"Yea… do you guys mind if we stay here until Brainy wakes up? I don't know how the time bubble works," said Superman.
"Brainy?" asked Gear.
"Brainiac Five's nickname," said Superman.
"Cute," said Gear.
"Yea, real cute. I would love to have a tea party with five Brainiacs, wouldn't you?" asked Static, making faces that showed how truly he felt about the concept.
"There aren't five of them," said Superman. "Brainy is a fifth generation. I'm pretty sure the other ones aren't around anymore."
"Excuse me if I don't do the happy dance," said Static, waving his arms in front of him slightly. "The thought of Brainiac having kids is creepy."
"Though I'm extremely curious as to how it would work," said Gear, looking down at the sleeping Brainy. Superman didn't think he liked Gear's smile now any more then he did the one he shared with Static earlier.
Static almost laughed and gave Gear a gentle punch in the arm.
"You would."
Gear laughed and returned with an equally gentle punch that Static shielded himself with his arms and pretended to be scared. They silently joked with each other like this for a few moments, almost as if speaking a secret language that not even Superman's extraordinary hearing could detect. Then, as the laughter started to die down, they looked at each other and smiled in a way differently then they had smiled before. It was like witnessing a slow motion moment from a movie in real life. All it needed was background music and a close up of their faces.
"You defiantly can't stay here," said Gear suddenly, snapping Superman out of his own observations.
"What?" asked Superman, not really sure of what Gear said.
"You can't stay here," Gear repeated. "It's a gas station that only has power when Static gives it power, plus the couch isn't big enough for both of you to sleep on."
"Oh," said Superman slowly.
Gear returned his attention to Static.
"It would be easy to sneak them into my house for the night but my mom has a habit of walking into my room without knocking."
"Well Sharon has left for the week on that trip with Adam and since Pops knows about us, I'm sure he'd be cool with them staying," said Static.
"He's probably sleeping by now," said Gear.
Static shrugged and smiled sneakily.
"And what he doesn't know won't hurt him."
Gear left the room and returned again without his glasses and his helmet back on. He walked back to where the others were standing and, before Superman realized what he was doing, Gear bent down and picked Brainy up from the couch.
During the lift the hood fell off Brainy's head and his hair was slightly messed up because of it. It would have been cute if Brainy hadn't continued to sleep as if he hadn't moved with his head now resting against Gear's chest.
At that moment, Superman found it very hard to like Gear.
They flew to a house in a quiet looking neighborhood and snuck in through a open window. It almost felt criminal to Superman until Static turned on the light of the messy room and took off his trench coat.
"Home sweet home."
"Hey V, where do you want them to sleep," asked Gear, who was beginning to struggle under Brainy's weight.
Superman was more then happy to help by taking Brainy away from him.
Static stretched his head thoughtfully and turned to Gear for thoughts. After watching his friend take off his helmet and shrug, he turned to Superman.
"Do you guys mind sharing my sister's bed or would you rather have sleeping bags in here with us?" asked Static.
"Won't your sister mind?" asked Superman, the very thought of it making his face turn red.
"She won't know," said Static, thinking this was Superman's answer and lead him out of the room with Gear, now back in his glasses, following.
Gear left them somewhere in the hallway and Static lead them into a near by room, past one echoing with snores.
Static turned on the light of the room and lead them into one that clearly belong to a girl.
"My sincerest apologize for the pink."
"Here's hoping it won't give you nightmares," said Gear upon entering the room, carrying more things of pink. He turned to Static. "Help me change the sheets."
"What? Why?" asked Static.
"So they don't catch cooties from your sister," said Gear looking at Static the same way Brainy looked at Lightning Lad when he said something stupid. "Just do it."
"Fine," groaned Static, knocking a few stuffed animals to the side and started to strip the bed.
As they changed the sheets together it was almost as if Static and Gear forgot Superman was there. They started talking about some comic book, making side jokes about random things and at one point Gear threw one of Sharon's stuff animals at Static for a bad pun. When it hit him Static fell to the ground and pretended to die of cooties.
"Sweet dreams," said Gear after he and Static finished.
"See you in the morning," yawned Static.
Superman barely had a chance to thank them before they closed the door behind them. He looked around the room and wondered if it really would give him nightmares. He managed to pull back the covers before lying Brainy down on the bed and considered taking off the sweater but he didn't want to wake Brainy up.
Not tired yet, Superman sat down on the bed next to Brainy. Being in this past, future to him, had given him a lot to think about. He was going to have some sort of hideout that he would call The Fortress of Solitude, and he was going to be 'best friends' with a person named Bats. He wasn't sure if he was more worried that Static and Gear weren't being truthful with the whole 'best friend' business or that he would one day know someone that called themselves 'Bats'. It was too close to 'Batty' for this taste.
More importantly he knew more about Brainy's ancestor. Admittedly it wasn't a lot, but it was more then what he had started with. The original Brainiac was obviously a evil villain. He had somehow hurt Gear and many other people, people that Superman would one day care about according to Brainy. Though Superman didn't know exactly who Brainiac had hurt outside of Gear, or what kinds of things he had done, Superman already hated Brainiac.
Superman hated how Brainiac had affected Brainy's life. Brainy would hardly mention his ancestor by name and had obviously caused Brainy lots of pain throughout his life. Not only was plagued by Brainiac's memories, Brainy had feared being completely honest with Superman, possibly all of the Legion because of him. Worst of all, Brainy seemed to be ashamed of who he was because of Brainiac.
There had to be a way to show Brainy how wonderful Superman thought he was since simply telling him that he didn't blame Brainy for anything Braniac did, didn't seem to really help. It made Superman wonder if Brainy would even believe him when he told Brainy that he loved him. Would Brainy accept his feelings or reject them?
Looking down at Brainy, Superman smiled at the sight that met his eyes. Brainy had curled to his side, facing Superman and had taken hold of Superman's cape. Deep asleep, Brainy held the red material to his chest.
Superman thought of everything they've been through together since he joined the Legion. Of the more recent events he remembered Brainy holding onto him the first time they had slept next to each other and how Brainy had grabbed hold of his sweater vest as he asked Clark to 'just be there.' He looked more closely at his memory of Brainy's expression after he had kissed the shorter boy's forehead. He had noticed that Brainy's blush was dark green, but he hadn't noticed how it had spread across his face, his big bright purple eyes staring up at him in wonder and… yearning? Had that really been in Brainy's eyes, or was he imagining it along with the hope Brainy's eyes had been brighter in that moment?
Either way, Superman had enough of becoming closer to Brainy and having to keep him at a arm's length at the same time. As soon as they got back to the future he was going to tell Brainy how he felt.
-----------
Brainy awoke feeling as though he hadn't really slept at all. His head felt heavy and he didn't want to open his eyes. He probably would have went straight back to sleep if something hadn't felt off about his surroundings.
Counting to three, twice, Brainy slowly opened his eyes. The first thing that made his way through his clouded mind was that he had just woken up in the best place in the universe, Superman's arms, as he had the last two nights. He closed his eyes for a moment longer and noted that he wouldn't mind waking up this way every morning.
This time, having to count to ten, Brainy opened his eyes to discover that he was in a completely unfamiliar room. He knew of no one in the Legion that had so much pink in their quarters, or strange looking pictures on the walls.
Curiosity won over comfort and Brainy eased himself up into a sitting position. Before he had the chance to look around more he noticed there was something different about himself. He was wearing a light green hooded sweater with an orange strip across the middle that was much too big on him. He ran his hands over his arms absently, in almost a self hug. Where had this come from?
Taking off the sweater, Brainy looked at the sweater more closely. He looked from it, to the room around him and he slowly began to remember what had happened the night before. It worried him that they were still in the past, but what worried him more was that it took him so long to remember everything. His mind normally worked much faster then that and had the capability to holding large amounts of data.
'Hello,' an electronic voice said directly to Brainy's mind.
Looking towards the ground Brainy saw Gear's mechanical backpack walking with the devices it usually used to stay strapped to Gear's back. A small camera had come out of its front, as it recorded Brainy. It almost looked like a animal observing him.
'Hello,' Brainy replied directly back.
'You are a Brainiac, but not three Brainiac,' Backpack stated.
'That is correct,' said Brainy.
'Do you have emotions like humans?' asked Backpack.
'For the most part, yes,' said Brainy.
'That is good,' said Backpack. 'Did you sleep well?'
'I don't feel like I slept at all,' said Brainy honestly.
'Then why did you fall asleep so suddenly?'
'I was affected by Static's natural electric currant around his body, for on my home planet Coluans sleep during lighting storms that happened regularly there. Lightning charges our mechanical parts as eating and drinking energizes our organic parts. When I came to Earth I had to get used to sleeping without lightning storms and absorb electricity from the power sources there instead. Lightning storms, and people with lightning based powers make me tired. If I'm not concentrating on something else, I easily fall asleep,' explained Brainy.
'So being around people like Lightning Lad and Static give your energy by just being around them?' asked Backpack.
'I have to be asleep to absorb the energy,' said Brainy. 'And how do you know about Lightning Lad?'
'The link through which we're speaking allows me to access your thoughts, such as how I communicate with Master Richie,' said Backpack.
'Richie is Gear, correct? You can't tell him anything about the future,' said Brainy.
'I cannot without information from my creator,' said Backpack.
'Then don't go digging around in my mind. It's dangerous for anyone of this time to know too much about the future,' said Brainy.
'But Clark Kent is the exception,' stated Backpack.
Brainy felt his flash heat up and, almost as fearing Superman would somehow wake up and hear them, he joined Backpack on the ground.
'What did I just say about digging around in my mind?'
'You care for Clark Kent very much,' stated Backpack, ignoring Brainy's question. 'That is too bad.'
Before Brainy could question what Backpack meant by this, one of Backpack's devices flashed.
'Master Richie is awake. We should return his sweater to him.'
With that said Backpack walked around Brainy and attached itself to Brainy's back like it had done many times to Gear.
Brainy wasn't sure of what to think of this, but figured there was no harm in returning the sweater like Backpack requested. As he was at it he could tell him that he and Superman would be leaving as soon as he woke up.
Standing, Brainy looked down at the sleeping Superman. This was the first time he really had the opportunity to look at the other boy while he was asleep. His breathe was caught in his throat as he was instantly reminded of Endymion, the beautiful shepherd that Selene put him into a eternal sleep and kept him to herself in a cave. Granted, he didn't want to put Superman in a eternal sleep, but the idea of keeping the other boy to himself was very appealing.
'Wouldn't that corrupt the timeline?' asked Backpack.
'Stay out of my head,' snapped Brainy, hopeing that Backpack would at least try to keep his thoughts relating to Superman to its mechanical self. He grabbed the sweater and tried not to look at Superman to avoid bringing up more personal thoughts. Heading into the hallway, he was surprised that he nearly walked straight into Gear, now Richie, dressed in his ordinary clothes, minus the sweater, showing the white t-shirt he normally wore under it.
Richie grinned at the shorter boy.
"Good morning Brainy. Hey Backpack, new friend?"
'Initializing mental link,' stated Backpack.
'Wait,' Brainy mentally shouted. 'You're already connected with my mind. You can't-"
Backpack either didn't hear Brainy in time, or just ignored him. It initialized the link between itself and its creator, creating a link between Richie and Brainy.
At first it was a rush of thoughts, memories and emotions that neither could really process. Then came the feeling that every sense had been heightened to the point it was almost as if they were drugged.
Richie lifted his hand and touched the cheek he had punched the night before. It was soft and warm under his touch, he couldn't tell that Brainy was mechanical at all. He wondered if all of Brainy felt this way.
Brainy's cheek felt tickled and set on fire by Richie's fingers. He could feel how it felt to his cheek and could almost imagine that he could feel what Richie was feeling through their physical connection.
Then there was warmth throughout both of their bodies, the sensation of soaring took away all rational thought. Their lips met in a kiss.
If Backpack had the capability, it would have smiled.
