"Here, take my jacket." Clark says, already with it half- off, ready to slide it around Brainy's shoulders. Clark doesn't need it, after all. Why waste it when it could be used to benefit someone else?

"I told you, I'm not cold." Brainy answers, and Clark rolls his eyes, seeing him shivering.

Clark lowers his voice, looking at Brainy seriously. "You don't need to lie. I know it's difficult, getting used to your human body. But accepting help from people is not a shame. It's an honor. El Mayarah, remember?"

"Stronger together, yes." Brainy says, taking the jacket. "Thank you."

"Don't you ever do that again! You scared the shit out of me!" Brainy grasps Clark's face, hovering above the ground, then hugs him without looking at him for a long time.

Clark hugs him in return, as tight as he can without breaking anything in Brainy's body. "I didn't know you worried that much about me. Given that my odds of coming back alive from something like that were greater than almost anyone's."

"To hell with odds." Brainy said. "You went in alone, to face my mother. Anyone would be in danger with her around, even you. Especially you."

BrainySupes + Gymnophoria: The sensation that someone is mentally undressing you.

(set in the "Supercorp"-style AU where Brainy doesn't know Clark's secret identity)

"I'm Superman." Clark finally says, once the two are in private.

"I don't believe you." He answers. "There's no way…"

Clark's the one with X-ray vision, but even he notices him looking for the outline of the suit, under his clothes. Hoping it's not there- that it isn't true his two best friends are one and the same.

Clark feels bad for him, but he can't keep perpetuating this lie. That would hurt Brian even more, in the long run, which would be unforgivable.

He goes to take off his shirt, but finds Brian's hands fumbling at the buttons already.

Baisemain- A kiss on the hand

(set after the "His Way" chapter of Pesky's fic Heart of Steel)

Brainy knew he'd told Clark he wasn't good at dancing. And he knew Clark wasn't the most experienced at it either, out of a desire not to hurt his partners-and the disastrous things that tended to happen whenever he did manage to start dancing with someone on Earth. There was one instance, for example, when a tornado attacked…

No matter. Clark had wanted to make up for their disastrous pretend-date in the sim chamber, so here they were again, each knowing the other was real this time.

Clark lifted Brainy's hand to kiss it, and the two faced each other.

BrainySupes + Mamihlapinatapei: The look between two people in which each loves the other but is too afraid to make the first move.

Both of them were leaving, in the end, after everything was back to relative normalcy.

Brainy, of course, had told Clark he was departing first- although Brainy always knew Clark had to leave the 31st century at some point. It was inevitable. History depended on it.

But Clark understood, smiled at him with that little head-tilt as he looked into his eyes, that made him seem so soft despite his indestructible physique. It was that look that reminded Brainy why he fell for him in the first place- the look that gave him hope that, perhaps, Clark loved him too.

(the "Brainy as a ghost" AU)

"You could have saved me." Brainy whispers, watching him go about his life.

"You do such good things, save the lives of so many people…yet… what did I mean to you?" he wonders. "Why didn't you try harder with me?"

He says that, and regrets it because Clark can't hear him, even though his hearing is so good. He says that, and regrets it because he knows Clark did try- and wouldn't have tried harder for anyone else.

He doesn't know what Clark's thinking, then, or if Clark even bothered to spare a thought for him.

It's worse than anything.

"It's a matter of birthright." He says, when Clark asks why he was given his title. "After my mother left Colu- she was the one who'd held it before me - the name was in disuse for about a decade. Though, of course I've known about my family's history since I was very young."

Clark's looking at him like he wants to hug him again. Even though such a thought feels so out of place, almost wrong; with the version of Clark sitting next to him, it's still comforting.

"I had to take the name. I had no other choice."

Adversi: person/foe opposite/directly facing (w/hostile intent)

(set in chapter 2 of Pesky's Heart of Steel fic)

Humans, Brainy had learned, had a saying: The bigger you are, the harder you fall. He'd understood that phrase logically, at first. It made complete sense for something with more mass to make a greater impact when contacting the ground so quickly.

But now, facing a Superman who'd fallen from grace, a Superman who wasn't himself…a Superman who saw him as a mere thing, never to become human or be worthy of love… it had an even greater metaphorical meaning. And he was sure Clark would understand that Brainy only did what he had to do, when this was over.

(Clark pretending to be scared of thunderstorms so Brainy can snuggle into him.)

"You cannot expect me to believe that." Brainy says, after Clark has- he thinks-admitted one of his greatest fears.

"It's true! Growing up in Kansas, you know, tornadoes kinda came with the territory, so obviously I learned to be afraid of them, for my parents' sake." Clark starts to explain. "And thunderstorms cause tornadoes."

"You're aware I could use this as blackmail material." Brainy states. "The man of steel, afraid of the storms he's more dangerous than…"

"Come here, you." Clark pulls him into a one-armed hug as they settle onto the couch, Brainy pulling a blanket over their laps.

(Cicatricem: Scars)

"Do they hurt?"

Clark traced the circles, with the lightest touch possible. Hours had passed since the Brainiac programming had been broken, fell away from Brainy- Querl, now- so easily. Like it was always meant to happen.

But, as Superman-X could have told him, such wasn't the case. It was only possible because they'd been there with him.

"Not hurt." Querl said, slowly. "They just…feel different. Everything does." He still smelled the burning, felt himself as a living comet launched from the skull-ship. But, as painful as the fire was, it also signified his rebirth.

A purification.

A new beginning.