Make Me Feel
Disclaimer: I only own The Beautiful Girl and Zachary (A.K.A: Granite). I own nothing else but them. Blah…blah…blah…
Notes. Ya! I'm popular for the first and only time in my short American life! I would like to thank elvesmagic101, DocOcksGirl31, mythical gurl, Repto, Moon Avenger, Seizure Squirrel, and Pirate Goddess for all reading and reviewing. I will also thank anyone else that read but did not review. Thank you all so much!
Chapter 9
Zachary slowly began to come out of the heavy fog he had been drifting in for some odd hours. He was groggy and his eyes felt heavy, but he was more comfortable than he had been before. He wrapped his arms around his current pillow and buried his face into the linen cover. Groaning he opened his bleary eyes and waited for them to adjust to the darkness of the quiet room.
Memories of what had happened earlier presented themselves to him and he felt a smile twitch at the corners of his lips. The memory of the surprise was blurry but he remembered enough to know that the older man had really gone out on a limb for him to do something like this. At some point he would need to come up with a better thank you than just his words but at this point he wasn't sure what he could do for the other man.
Sighing he forced himself to get up from his comfortable futon bed made an effort to stand up. He wobbled for a moment and tried to get a hold of his bearings. He managed to navigate his way through the darkness of the room and felt along the wall for the door. He finally found it and grasped the doorknob in his hand.
He stepped out into the dark 'hallway' and noticed that everything was very quiet. He realized that he must have been asleep for quite some time and it must have turned to the late evening. By now he was awake enough to notice that his bladder was agreeing full heartily and he mentally slapped himself because he had absolutely no idea where the bathroom was.
He spent the next ten minutes on an extremely relevant search until he had finally located the dearly needed room. After relieving himself he checked his reflection and instinctively made an attempt to tame his bangs with his fingers. Only too naturally fail miserably.
He then left the lavatory and mentally made a note of its exact whereabouts for future reference.
He wandered the dark halls for awhile and enjoyed the pleasant quiet dark and calm atmosphere. He was sure that Doctor Octavius must have retired to bed himself hours ago and he felt vaguely lost without the older man there to tell him what to do. He admitted to himself that sounded as if he was dependent on the other older man, but secretly he suspected that he was.
After awhile of wandering he found himself drifting into a familiar living room and decided to crash on the couch for a short while. He searched through the dark for a few moments before he managed to locate and retrieve the television remote. He carefully turned the box on and lowered the volume enough that he could hear it but so that a certain sleeping adult would not be disturbed.
He lounged lazily on the worn couch flipping through the few available channels before finally stopping on a rerun of the day's news. He sat barely listening and was in the beginnings of a daydream until he saw something very concerning appearing on the screen.
It was his school picture.
Snapping to attention he raised the volume slightly so he could hear better.
"…is a picture of Zachary Wayne of Gotham City. The young man is the only son of the Late Bruce Wayne who was owner of Wayne Industries and has been missing for nearly two weeks. The boy's mother Teresa Wayne reported the youth missing when he could not be located when a servant had been sent to wake him for school. Ms. Wayne is offering a 10,000 dollar reward towards anyone with information on her son's location. Zachary is 17 and stands at roughly 5'10" and weighs around 125 to 140 pounds.
Police officials investigating the issue believe that this could be a possible kidnapping due to the youth's family and background. Police have been questioning the few friends that Zachary was reported to be seen associated with but none of the teens had been aware Zachary was missing until they were questioned by detectives. Our sources have told us that there are search teams on call around the main Gotham City area, but so far they have found nothing concerning Zachary Wayne.
Here is another showing of Zachary's most recent photo, and if you have any information on this young man's disappearance please call us at 1-800-643…"
Zachary shut off the t.v. with an almost hostile click of the remote.
His heart was racing and he had started breathing heavily. He felt the heavy pump of his heart in his chest and he briefly worried he was going to have a panic attack. He thought back to his confrontation with Spider-Man he knew there was a good chance that whoever his secret identity was, he most likely had seen this broadcast and had recognized him.
He sat there silently panicking for a moment and nearly jumped out of his skin when the light switched on. He turned around so quickly that Otto wondered how it was possible for his head and neck to stay connected.
Zachary saw the other man standing in the doorway with an expression that said he was contemplating something. Zachary froze when he noticed the older man was bare chested and was actually only wearing a pair of black sweatpants. He saw that part of the 'tentacle thing' wrapped around the older man's slightly pudgy belly covering it entirely.
"That is definitely inconvenient, but it does not matter."
Zachary's mouth opened and shut a few times.
"It doesn't?"
Otto seemed amused and the corners of his lips quirked up. He walked over to the young man and lowered himself onto the couch next to him.
"No, it doesn't. I guarantee you that by tomorrow's 7 o'clock news you will be shown again, only that time you will be referred to as 'Granite'."
Zachary slowly nodded and eyed the Doctor's metallic tentacles that were almost lazily waving and curling behind him. As usual he was uncomfortable by the close proximity of the older man's body and this was only heightened by the fact the older man was only half dressed.
Otto easily picked up on the young man's discomfort and it troubled him the boy kept shying away. He decided that he wanted to test the boy's reactions to physical contact. Only for scientific and concerned reasons of course.
He gently moved closer to the young man keeping his eyes on the youth for any and all reactions. Zachary seemed to stiffen for a moment but then relaxed slightly. Otto noted the reaction and proceeded onward.
He once again moved a bit closer until he was right up against the younger man and gently wrapped his arm around the youth's shoulders. His hand began to gently massage the base of the boy's neck and stopped to see the young man's reaction.
He was clearly disappointed but not entirely surprised when the youth abruptly bolted from the room.
He sat looking at the doorway the young man had just done a Mock 5 through and sighed. The young man clearly had some touching issues and seemed to be very self-conscious. Oh well, they could work on that later.
End of Chapter
Hey! I hope this wasn't a bit too much. Did I go too far? Oh well, thank you so much for reading and please review!!!
Stray-