A/N: Set shortly after Red Chapter 11.
It didn't strike John as odd when Shayera came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her body and headed to her nightstand. Naturally, he looked up from his spot on the bed so that he could enjoy the view, but other than that, he didn't think too much of it.
When he saw Shayera rummaging through her nightstand for something, he was about to ask if she needed any help finding whatever it was she was looking for. Before he got the chance she pulled out a pair of tweezers and headed straight back to the bathroom. John furrowed his brow in confusion.
All interest lost on the TV show he was watching, he turned it off, rolled off of the bed, and headed for the bathroom. Shayera had left the door slightly ajar but John still have the courtesy of knocking before he entered, "Shayera is everything..."
He let his voice trail off at the sight in front of him. Shayera was standing in front of the bathroom mirror, tweezers held up in one hand while her fingers were combing through her amber hair, as if she were looking for something. Upon hearing her husband's voice, Shayera's hand froze in place.
John advanced into the room and stood next to Shayera. "Um...so...what are you doing exactly?"
Shayera glanced at John before raking her hand through her hair, while putting the tweezers down on the bathroom sink. She closed her eyes and sighed, her shoulders slumping slightly. She mumbled something under her breath that John couldn't make out. When John raised an eyebrow and tilted his head to showcase he didn't understand her incoherent sentence, Shayera turned to look him in the eyes and quietly murmured, "I found a gray hair."
John couldn't help but smile and begin to laugh.
"It's not funny John!"
"Babe, it's ok," John reached out, placing a hand on her cheek to turn her head in his direction. He then took his other hand to tilt her head down to inspect her hair himself.
"I don't see one gray hair on your head Shay," he said, trying to reassure her.
"It's there," Shayera insisted, her tone low and dark as she glared at her reflection. "I saw it when I got out of the shower. It's just hiding now. It knows I want to find it."
"Well, if it's that hard to find, maybe you shouldn't worry about it then?" John suggested.
"Don't you see? It's the first one of many to come. This is where the downhill decline starts for me. One minute I'm young and full of life and the next I'll be buried in the ground."
John rolled his eyes as her dramatics, "You're still hot. One gray hair or not."
"You can't flatter me out of this one. It won't change the fact I have a gray hair."
John this time let out an exasperated sigh, "For the love of...Shay you're like physically thirty-five years old despite being a hundred and twenty-four. I think if it took that many years to get a gray hair than you're doing really good. Especially with all the stress you've had in life."
Shayera frowned as she looked back to the mirror and probed the corners of her eyes with her fingertips.
John felt like slamming his head against the wall. "You don't have any wrinkles either Babe."
Shayera ignored him as she continue to look in the mirror before reaching her hand to her head again and plunking a strand of hair out with the tweezers. "See?" Shayera held the strand up to John.
John looked unamused, "So? It's one lone gray hair and you got rid of it. It's gone now." She threw the strand in the trash but continued to frown as she looked back at her reflection. "I never would have pegged a Thanagarian warrior as the type of person that would be so vain over her appearance. Everyone ages Shayera, even you."
"It's not fair. I don't want to be reminded of my age. Getting old means I won't be able to fight eventually."
"You're still young Shay, trust me," he then chuckled. "Besides grandmothers have gray hair."
Shayera let out a light groan, "Don't remind me. That means I'm definitely getting old if my kids are having kids."
"Don't worry grandma," John said in a mocking tone only to earn a cutting glare from Shayera.
"I told you that word is right under Hawkgirl in the list of things to never call me."
John held his hands up in mock defense, "I know. Though Nana Shay doesn't sound much better than grandma."
"Yes it does. It sounds ten times better," Shayera insisted. "It doesn't have the same connotation as grandma or granny or grandmother."
"I fail to see that," John smirked as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her against him.
Shayera chuckled, "You're trying to butter me up now and make me forget about the aging and the gray hair."
"Is it working?" John asked as he kissed her neck causing her to giggle.
"I think it is," Shayera kissed him and then hugged him. "Thanks."
"You're welcome," he then paused. "Is that another gray hair?"
"What!?" Shayera immediately went back to looking in the mirror as John began to laugh.
"Shay relax...I was kidding. There's no gray hair."
"Dammit John!" Even after forty years of marriage the man could either make her happy within one second or want to strangle him the very next. Though Shayera knew she could do the same with him.
John backed out of the bathroom as Shayera angrily stalked after him, "I'm going to check on Rex and see how his babysitting duty is going. You can keep looking for your imaginary gray hairs and wrinkles."
John quickly escaped their room before Shayera could throttle him. He laughed to himself as he headed to the rec area where he found Rex by himself.
"Rex don't tell me you lost Jaye," John said in a tone mixed with curiosity and humor.
Rex shook his head and smirked, "I didn't lose her. Reena was more than happy to babysit in my place. You literally left me with the spawn of Satan herself. She's Reena's problem now."
It wasn't even that Jaye was aggressive, like her mother or grandmother. She was just a troublemaker who liked to get in the middle of everything and cause trouble, like her mother and grandmother.
"That demon!" Barda yelled as she stomped through the room and straight to John. "You better get that demon under control Stewart!"
"Demon? What demon?" John tried to play dumb but he knew who Barda was referring to.
They heard giggling as Mareena carried in a giggling two-year-old, "She's not a demon Barda. You shouldn't have left your mega-rod unattended."
"Aw did the big, bad Barda get hurt by a toddler?" Rex teased the Apokoliptian only to dodge a punch two seconds later.
"Keep it up and I'll show you what this mega-rod can do. I'll stick it so far up your ass-"
"Barda!" John cut her off. "Language."
Barda rolled her eyes, "Please, I've heard Shayera curse in front of that kid plenty of times."
John expected to hear that. He knew Emma and Rex's common use of vulgar language came from hearing it from their mother on a daily basis, no matter how much he scolded the Thanagarian. He was hoping to stop the cycle with his granddaughter.
"Nana Shay said shit," The little girl giggled and John groaned as Barda stormed out of the room.
"Here let me take the spawn of Satan back," John offered. "I need her to get the mother of Satan into a good mood."
"Mom's in a bad mood? What did you do Dad?"
John rolled his eyes as Mareena handed Jaye over to him, "It wasn't me this time. She found one gray hair and is acting like it's the end of the world."
"Mom realizes that she doesn't even look like she aged a day. She still looks the same like when me and Emma were kids. We look the same age now. Hell some people would probably think I'm her older brother."
John put a hand on Rex's shoulder, "That's how women are Rex. No matter where they come from apparently."
Rex turned to look at Mareena, who was walking out of the room, and then back to John, "All women?"
John nodded, "All women, even Mareena." He then smirked, "You should ask her out already."
"Me and Reena? No way," Rex shook his head. "We're just friends...really good friends. That's all. She's an exiled, Atlantean princess and all so I don't stand a chance. Plus if Aquaman ends up un-disowning her I rather not have a harpoon in my chest."
John shook his head and chuckled. The two of them were skirting around each other as much as possible whenever the dating topic was brought up. It was blatantly obvious the two were attracted to each other. The constantly flirting on both sides and trying to spend as much time around each other as possible.
"Well you do you but your mother isn't going to stop pestering you about it. She likes Mareena. She even likes to pester Mareena about it."
"Yeah I know. Mom's been teaching her hand-to-hand combat as an excuse to be around her a lot. Mareena demonstrated what she learned and well...don't tell Mom but Mareena hits harder than her."
It did surprise John a bit that Arthur never taught his daughter how to fight but given she was a pampered princess prior to her exile, he probably let her live the life of luxury. Plus being a superhero that couldn't fight was proving to be a challenge for the Atlantean if she wasn't near any water to use her hydrokinesis, an ability she over relied on. Coupled with Shayera's desire to have the ex-princess date her son, she readily volunteered to teach her how to fight.
John shrugged, "Still it couldn't hurt to ask her."
Rex looked unamused as he crossed his arms over his chest, "I thought you were going to take Jaye to Mom already and not bother me over my love life."
"Alright, alright, come on Jaye let's leave Uncle Rexy to pine over his girlfriend."
Jaye giggled as Rex scowled, "She's not my girlfriend and I'm not pining over her."
"Right..." John smirked as Jaye waved over his shoulder.
"Bye-bye Uncle Rexy."
Rex frowned as he went to find Mareena. Of course only to talk and spend time together like how good friends did.
"Shay hopefully you're done preening," John jokingly said as he entered their room. He rolled his eyes as she was still in the bathroom. He went into the bathroom to see that she had gotten dressed but was looking over her hair in the mirror still. He couldn't help but to let out a defeated sounding sigh. "Shayera come on already. This is getting ridiculous. You're still beautiful and you got rid of the only gray hair you had."
"I'm making sure," she continued to look over her hair before turning her attention to John. Seeing Jaye with him, she lightly smiled and took her from him. "Now I know you are really trying to distract me." She hugged the toddler, who giggled and hugged her back. "This distraction is working 100%."
"Good because Barda thinks she's a demon and Rex called her the spawn of Satan. So she's your problem now apparently as long as you don't teach her anymore words like shit."
Shayera refused to make eye contact with John, "Oh...um...well...she um...she shouldn't have been listening to me."
John rolled his eyes, "Yeah same story like when Emma and Rex were kids and repeating every curse word under the sun you said in front of them. You gave the same excuse that they shouldn't have been listening to you. Kids hear everything Shay. Whether you want them to or not."
"It's not my fault I get enthusiastic when I talk," Shayera defended herself. "Plus those words are the closest translations I can think of to some Thanagarian words."
"Translation?" John asked, rather surprised. "You mean you still think in Thanagarian?"
"I sometimes do," she shrugged. "Seriously John, Thanagarian is my first language after all. Plus English is hard to learn. Hell I still don't have grammar down yet."
"Yeah your penmanship is still chicken scratch," John gave her an amused smirk as he leaned against the bathroom sink. "And how many years have you been on this planet?"
Shayera pouted, "Fifty not that it makes a damn bit of difference."
"Damn," Jaye giggled and Shayera groaned as John gave her a pointed look.
"Jaye stop repeating what I say. You're getting me in trouble with PopPop."
"Good I need a little spy to tell me about everything you do and report back. Now I can have eyes and ears on you at all times again."
Shayera pretended to look annoyed at this though John knew Shayera loved having Jaye around. As much of a warrior she was, Shayera loved children. Plus John knew Shayera saw Jaye as her second chance after how the relationship between her and Emma went. So far Shayera was treating Jaye more like her daughter than granddaughter.
"Great first you used Emma and Rex to spy on me and now you're using our granddaughter. Don't you know spying is bad?" Shayera gave him a sly smile. "Though you aren't being very discreet about it."
"Well I was never formally trained after all."
"Well then I think you might need a lesson from someone that has experience."
"Well I only know one intelligence agent," John kissed her and then paused, unsure if he should mention his observation. "Um Shay...this time I'm not joking. I think you might have a second gray hair."