Author's Note: WE. ARE. BACK! And now with a revamped cover! (To see it bigger, check out my instagram writetoyou_fanaccount :)

Guys guys guysss (spoilers for 6x01 ahead) CAN YOU BELIEVE THE CONTENT WE GOT?! THAT HEAD-ON-SHOULDER THING AND THE PINKY PROMISE AND THE TEARS AND THE ILYS AND ARGGGHHHHHHHH!

I'm surprised (but very happy and relieved) that things resolved so quickly. I've been writing all of these elaborate fanfictions fixits for Brainy's decisions and in the show Nia was like yeah okay I forgive you XD I am NOT mad at it though let me tell you.

Summary: Brainy works to start engaging more openly with Nia as they repair their relationship.

Spoilers: Spoilers for 6x01! (DANG it feels good to say that :D)

Lie 1: I'm fine

What was it about a pinky promise that felt more binding than a legal contract?

Brainy mulled over this as he sat with Nia on the platform ledge in the Tower, their little fingers still loosely hooked together, her head nestled into the crook of his shoulder and his thumb brushing circles on her knee. If Nia had simply asked him to be more open and truthful with her, that would have been one thing.

But Brainy had pinky promised. No matter how illogical it may have seemed, he knew that meant he had to keep his word.

Unfortunately, intention for action was much different than actual action. When Brainy finally got around to untangling himself from Nia and standing up, he felt the blood drain rapidly from his face and he found himself staggering.

"Hey." Nia quickly caught at his arm, concern written across her face. He had forgotten what it felt like to have her direct one of those kind, anxious looks at him. "You all right?"

Brainy opened his mouth, words automatically budding at the tip of his tongue. "I'm fine," he said, but then he stopped and swallowed.

Nia tilted her head, eyebrows lifting.

"I'm… not fine," Brainy corrected, very deliberately. He cleared his throat. "I believe that I may still be experiencing some after-effects of my brush with death earlier today."

"I think that's pretty understandable," Nia replied, giving him a soft smile. She didn't say that she was proud of him for telling her the truth, but she didn't have to; it was written all over her face. "It's not as if you got much time to recover after almost being radiated to death. Do you want me to, um… to take you home?"

Once again, Brainy's gastronomical inclination was to refuse. Nia was sure to be exhausted and battered as well, and she probably didn't want to have to deal with calling an Uber and looking after him.

But then he reminded himself that she had offered. She was willing, even after all the crap he had put her through, to be there for him.

"Yes," he said slowly. "I would like that very much."

Lie 2: I'm available tonight

Even with Lex taken care of, the world couldn't seem to calm down for even a week. Though he was no longer working for Lex, Brainy was still the Director of the DEO, which meant his responsibilities had almost doubled. Gone were the days that he could take a few hours off. Even on slow days, there were still forms to be signed and agents to be debriefed and mission plans and statistic sheets to be looked over. Needless to say, Brainy hadn't had much personal time.

So when Nia called him about an hour after he'd taken his lunch break, he almost ignored his phone. But this was Nia and his guilt from the past few months was still oppressive, so he picked up.

"Hey, Brainy!" Nia chirped. "How's it going?"

"Business as usual," Brainy replied. "What may I do for you, Nia Nal?"

"So I was just wondering if you would maybe like to go to dinner with me tonight?" Nia asked. "We could… we could try going on our first date again, and see what happens. Would you- is that something you'd like?"

It was something Brainy would like, very much so. But he could already tell by the mountain of work on his desk that he would be staying at the DEO long after normal hours, and that by the time he left he would be completely burnt out. Going to a restaurant wouldn't be his first choice of evening plans.

"Brainy?" Nia asked, and he could hear a hint of nervousness in her voice. "Are you still there?"

"Yes, yes, I'm here," Brainy told her quickly, drumming his fingers on the table. He didn't want to refuse her, not when she was being so generous and forgiving to even consider letting him back into her life again, much less in such a close relationship format as a boyfriend. "Nia, I…"

"If you don't want to that's fine," Nia blurted. "I just thought that dinner might be a good place to start because it can be totally casual and we can just talk and maybe figure out where we stand and-"

"And I would love to," Brainy cut in, then gritted his teeth and forced himself to go on. She would want him to go on. She would want him to be honest. "But tonight is not the best evening for me. Would you be free on Saturday? Perhaps at around 6 pm?"

"Yeah, yes, of course!" Nia exclaimed hurriedly. "That sounds absolutely perfect."

Brainy let out a breath, relieved. "Thank you," he said. "It is merely that things are rather overwhelmingly busy here at the moment, and I would like to be fully able to commit my mind and attentions to you when we do go on our second-first-date."

"Do you need my help?" Nia queried. "I could come up with an excuse to get out of CatCo; give you guys a hand."

Brainy smiled at her enthusiasm. "That will not be necessary," he told her, and meant it. "I would be forced to put you to work reading terms and conditions, and I am fully capable of that myself."

"Ew, terms and conditions. I retract my offer," Nia laughed, before she said her goodbyes and let him get back to his work.

Lie 3: I don't need your help

Despite how hectic Brainy's schedule had become, he and Nia did manage to find a time for their second-first-date. They spent the evening, nostalgically, at the pizza place where they'd first met. Brainy was tempted to ask if Nia wanted to recreate their first real conversation in the alleyway (he'd had it committed to memory for almost two years now), but he thought that might seem a bit odd.

They did head into the alleyway after dinner, though, and decided to take a stroll downtown. Brainy walked with his hands down by his sides, the back of his fingers bumping Nia's once, twice, thrice, before she grasped hold and intertwined them with hers. Brainy hid his grin by looking away.

Then his phone rang.

"Is it important?" Nia asked, the disappointment in her tone signaling that she knew that, with their luck, it would be.

Brainy placed his hand over his pocket where his phone was. "Robbery alert," he answered regretfully. "Six men, armed with high-powered weapons. They're downtown, just a few blocks away." He sighed. "I will send a message saying that I am on my way."

"We," Nia corrected. "You know I keep my suit in my purse at all times."

Brainy sent a glance at the aforementioned purse, surprised that it was large enough to hold an entire, full-sized super suit. "It would really be faster if-"

"Brainy," Nia huffed, dropping his hand and crossing her arms. "Six guys, you said? High-powered weapons? Two on six is way better odds than one- you should know that."

Brainy did know that. He'd already run the calculations. "You are correct that it would be logical for you to join me in the fight," he allowed, gazing into Nia's eyes. "But, as you once said, the heart is not logical."

Nia furrowed her eyebrows, unsure of what he meant.

"I will be open with you," Brainy went on, stressing the key word in the hopes that she would be reminded of the promise he'd made without him actually having to explain that he was only fulfilling her wishes, "and say that I do not like the idea of you fighting against men with powerful weapons. It scares me."

"And I will be open with you," Nia shot back, staring him down, "and say that I am just as capable as fighting them as you are. I'm not going to be sidelined just because you're scared, Brainy. We're superheroes. It our job to push aside our own fear and attachments and get the job done."

Brainy stared back. Insofar, his attempts to be honest had helped his and Nia's relationship. Now it seemed that the truth had pushed things and made them a little tense.

But the thing about honesty was that it led to discussion, and discussion was the only way tension could be resolved. Maybe that was what Nia wanted all along. Not that things were suddenly perfect because he was telling the truth, but that they were out in the open; able to be dealt with.

"Understood," Brainy said, nodding. "You'd best get changed."

Lie 4: I'm not hurt

"Well, to use a complicated medical phrase: You got lucky," Dr. Sofie Brack said as she pushed her glasses from the bridge of her nose to the top of her head.

"Lucky?" Brainy spat, sitting up with a groan and gritting his teeth as pain seared. His left pant leg had been cut almost to the hip, giving Dr. Brack room to inspect the deep still-sizzling wound in his thigh. It had been caused by an alien acid spat by, unsurprisingly, an alien. "I won't be able to walk for a good twenty-six hours."

"You'll be able to walk in twenty-seven hours," Dr. Brack countered, not looking terribly sorry for him. "Lucky."

She strode away from the gurney, placing her tools on a side table to be cleaned later. "Is there someone you'd like me to contact to come pick you up? Your girlfriend, perhaps?"

Brainy's jaw tightened, but he knew better than to argue the point on whether or not he should go home. He'd only burden the DEO staff if he stayed, and that was the last thing he wanted to do.

Actually… no. The last thing he wanted to do was tell Nia he'd been badly injured in the field when he'd gone in alone without fully assessing the situation. "No," he told Dr. Brack. "No, I will get home myself."

Dr. Brack raised her eyebrows. "Flying on pain meds is like drinking and driving, Director Dox," she sighed. "As your doctor, I really can't recommend that for the sake of your health."

Brainy squinted at her, trying to figure out if he was being paranoid or if Nia had had words with the doctor about what to do if he ever got her. That 'girlfriend picking you up' bit had been a bit suspicious.

Or maybe flying after an injury really was a bad idea, and Nia was around Brainy and the DEO more than any of his other friends.

Brainy sucked in a breath. Nia would be glad he'd called. Not because of why he'd called, but because he called. Besides, she was a journalist. If he didn't tell her about the injury, she'd found out some other way and then she'd really let him have it.

"Fine," he grumbled, wondering when he'd started feeling like he was no longer the one in charge. "I will call my girlfriend."

The responding smile from Dr. Brack did absolutely nothing to ease Brainy's paranoia.

Lie 5: This is easy

The day the Superfriends had defeated Lex, Kara had been sent into the Phantom Zone, and Nia had told Brainy she still loved him seemed like an odd sort of anniversary to celebrate, but Brainy still paid attention to the date and got Nia flowers. He hadn't intended to tell her what they were for, but the moment he was about to lie and say there was no real reason, he realized what he was doing.

"Brainy?" Nia asked quizzically, hand wrapped around the stems of a bouquet of love-in-a-mist flowers. "You good?"

Another lie had sprung to his tongue, and Brainy groaned. "No," he said, speaking carefully. "I am… frustrated."

"What's up?" Nia queried. She set the flowers on her desk (he'd brought her them to surprise her at CatCo and they hadn't yet left for a lunch date) and took both his hands. "Talk to me."

"See, that is the problem," Brainy gritted. "I am- I am trying to talk to you, to be open, but it is still my instinct to keep things from you. To make things seem easier than they are. Just in this interaction I have almost told you two untruths."

"But you didn't," Nia said gently. "And that's what matters. Brainy, changing how you deal with your thoughts and your burdens isn't supposed to be easy. But that's why there's two of us; we have to work through it together."

"The flowers are to celebrate a month anniversary of you giving me a second chance," Brainy told her softly. "I wasn't going to tell you because I- because I was afraid that that day might not have been as momentous to you as it was to me."

"Of course it was," Nia breathed. "But even if it wasn't, you shouldn't feel ashamed for finding it meaningful." She tilted her head and reached up to brushed a strand of hair behind his ear, letting her hand linger on his cheek for a moment. "But look at this, Brainy. You never would have known how I felt about that day if you hadn't been honest with me. I know that it's hard, but it's worth it. Right?"

Her eyebrows furrowed, suddenly unsure. Brainy leaned in and pressed a kiss to her lips. She'd initiated kissing a couple times before but this was the first time since they got back together that he'd made the first move.

"It's worth it," he told her, and for once the truth came easily.

Author's Note: Oh my goshhhh this is the first Brainia fanfiction I've written in so long y'all have no idea how good it feels.

I have no idea if I'll go as crazy with the fics as I did last year. I haven't been writing all that much fanfiction of late, but Brainia has always had a knack for getting my fingers moving :)

(To orose0222: I'm working on your prompt as we speak. Now that I'm re-inspired for these babies I'm so excited to write it!)