Title: Supra Genius
Author: Fearless Jones
Fandom: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Pairing: Joe/Dex
Rating: PG
Note: First posted on the LJ group Skycaptainslash. Title comes from a Soul Coughing song that I wish to "immortalize." )
Disclaimer: These characters are not my own. I'm just borrowing them and no money is being made.
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The evening sun that streams through the open airplane hangar is bright, intensely warm, and almost unreal in its beauty. It seems smooth as liquid gold as it plays off of Dex's slicked hair, making him something approaching beautiful, too, though he's caked with a fine layer of dust and glistens with perspiration.
Joe watches serenely as Dex scrambles for a stubby pencil that's just rolled its way off the sturdy metal table in front of them. Airplane plans that are as intricate and mysterious as artwork are laid out, some of them only half-rolled. Joe reaches out to straighten one he recognizes, then once more leans back against a gleaming worktable that's strewn with tools of every size and shape.
Dex at work is something amazing, he muses. He's half puppy, half genius.
Joe is man enough to admit that he's somewhat jealous of his friend's vast store of knowledge, though it's not as if Joe's lacking in skills. He knows how to pilot a plane, of course. He's Sky Captain, after all. He's the best in the world. However, he doesn't quite know all of the science behind it; every science behind it. Dex does. And that's what Joe finds so intriguing.
Suddenly, Joe speaks.
"If I asked you to describe the function of every part that makes up my plane's motor, could you?" He asks, watching Dex straighten up from retrieving his pencil. One of Dex's eyebrows lifts skyward, and he looks as if he wants to laugh aloud. He doesn't, however. He'd never laugh at anything serious Joe has to say. After a pause to check that his pencil point is still intact, he answers.
"If I stood here and told you every detail, we'd be here for awhile." Dex smiles as he says it, averting his eyes from the intense look on Joe's face. He stands a little straighter, and continues working on his notations. Shouldn't waste the sunlight, after all.
Joe doesn't move. He doesn't appear to breathe. "But you could tell me, right?" he questions. "You'd know everything about it, wouldn't you?"
Dex clenches his jaw around a wad of well chewed bubblegum. He takes several moments to consider his response.
"Yes, I guess I could. Why?"
Joe grins hesitantly, thoughtfully, and as nervously as the famous (sometimes infamous) Sky Captain can get.
"No reason. Just proving a point to myself," he says, eyes tracking the movement of Dex's hands on delicate blueprints.
"Which is?" Dex asks, not looking up.
Joe takes a quick breath, and stands up straight, unblinking in the face of dangerous territory. "That you're the smartest man I know," he says softly.
Dex's hands become still, his mouth slack, and he very nearly loses his chewing gum. When he answers, the tone in his voice is matter-of-fact.
"I don't think so, Joe."
The pilot steps forward, eyes never straying from their target as he lays his palms flat on a scattered stack of papers.
"I think so."
One quick glance up, full of embarrassment, is all Dex can manage before he becomes too shy to answer. If he were good at this sort of thing, he could argue and maybe flirt a little until he discovers what Joe really wants of him. He knows what Joe should want of him. Years of comic book reading has him well aware of what every hero wants in a sidekick. But, he thinks, I'm not good at this kind of thing, am I?
And so he lets it go.
"All right."
Joe stares at Dex's bowed head, almost at a loss. He'd been hoping for a response better than 'all right.' He continues speaking, however, even after Dex resumes scrawling numbers onto lined paper.
"And since you're the smartest man I know, I have to ask you a question. It's been bothering me, and maybe you can answer it."
Dex straightens his shoulders and forces himself to look Joe square in the eye. He has a feeling the question will somehow involve a girl. Wonder who it'll be this time. Franky or Polly?
"Yes, cap?" Dex answers, his voice surprisingly even.
"How come I've never kissed you?"
Joe's expression is as smug as ever as he enjoys watching the exact second when understanding hits Dex's razor-sharp mind. He crosses his arms in front of his chest and waits, wanting to laugh, but finding, somehow, that he can't.
He settles for a slight smirk as he watches Dex snap his mouth closed to think about a reply.
The look on Dex's expressive face is priceless when he realizes that he really has lost his gum this time. He looks down, only half mortified, watching intently as it glistens wetly like some small vital organ on the floor. He thinks about teasing. He thinks about getting angry. He even thinks about the truth.
It's the truth that wins out, when he finally speaks.
"Because you're Sky Captain, Joe. Because pretty girls everywhere want you to kiss them, and you can take your pick. You'd never want someone like me."
Having said his piece, Dex busies himself with rolling up his finished blueprints. He ignores Joe, who is busy himself, admiring Dex's profile in the fading light. Joe draws himself up to his full height, looking every inch a captain of the skies.
"I take it back," he says with authority, causing Dex to look up sharply and somewhat suspiciously. "You don't know a damn thing."
It's only after he moves forward to kiss his friend hard on the lips that he realizes he's stepped in the forgotten wad of pink Double Bubble.
Though, by that time, Dex is reluctant to let him go, and Joe wouldn't leave him anyway.
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"I know you're a supra genius
Will you shoot the blue earth down?
In the space station Polishing the ray gun
You say correlation is not causation"
-Soul Coughing "Supra Genius"