A Brand New Light
Chapter 8: A Brand New Revelation
Everyone woke up as the sunlight streamed into the glass gazebo. Barry yawned and sat up blinking at the shadow that was on the outside of the door. There was a gentle knock and Barry tried to speed over to answer it, only he tripped on his long hair half way there and fell into a heap on the floor. The door opened and extraordinary blue eyes framed by glasses looked in and down at the blonde.
"Barry, are you alright?" He asked softly, the speedster groaned and the bat clan and Conner shot up in bed.
"Yeah, I'm fine Clark." He hoisted himself up and untangled his hair with a frown. "Come on in." The tall man hesitantly opened the door before stepping in and helping the speedster to his feet. Bruce climbed out of bed with a soft smile and crossed over to the giant man. He plucked the glasses off the bridge of his nose.
"No identities this time, only ourselves, Kal." Clark quickly glanced over to the stunned clone and watched as the boy angrily got up out of bed and exited the gazebo. Clark frowned at Bruce and looked down ashamed.
"What are we going to do?" Bruce cupped both of the alien's cheeks in his hands and stared straight into his eyes.
"What you should've done from the start." Clark sighed and nodded before straightening up and squaring his shoulders.
"Come with me?" Bruce nodded and took up Clark's hand and they went after the angry teenager. Barry wrestled angrily with his long hair and Hal sleepily got up and picked up the long braid for the frustrated blond and helped him back to the bed before grabbing the brush that was on the floor and started brushing out the long hair.
"Hey…Dinah…can you get me some bobby pins, a two hair ties? They're in my bag in the car, front pocket on the left." The blond grunted and snuggled into Oliver and the pillow. "You can get the first cup of coffee…" Hal said in a teasing voice, knowing the blond always got the first cup, heaven help the poor bastard that took it before she got to it. She grunted and got up and walked outside and into the house. She came back with a fist full of the retrieved hair things and a steaming cup of coffee. She handed the items to Hal and Barry raised an eyebrow at the half asleep man. Hal took the hair ties and slid them on his wrist and put several bobby pins in his mouth and took up the hair brush. He parted it to the left slightly, sectioned many little sections and braided many little braids, took a section that wasn't braided and made it into a small bun and wrapped the small braids around the small bun and made the bun bigger. The excess trickled down the side, the section of unbraided hair casted a nice contrast to the small braids. Hal used the bobby pins to keep the small braids on the bun secured. He then repeated it to the other side. Everyone looked at Hal as he styled the long blonde hair with such practiced hands.
"Hal, where did you learn to style hair like this?" Barry asked him.
"Hmmm, oh combination of military and boy scouts. I always liked making lanyards in boy scouts and I learned more intricate knots and braiding in the military. It's not that hard to apply it to hair." Hal pinned the last braid in and put the brush down. "There, you're hair will be away from your legs and off the ground." Barry smiled and got up and ran out and back and handed Hal a cup of coffee.
"You were right Hal, this is perfect until we leave." Hal smiled and took a sip of his coffee. "Hey have you done other types of hair? Like coloring and cutting?" Hal nodded.
"Yeah, one time I had to dye my hair a bunch of crazy colors and cropped it for a mission on a planet in a far away sector in a corner of space that I hope I never have to go back to."
"Why's that?" Jade asked as she pulled her shirt down into place, Roy doing the same beside her.
"Too many grabby hands, on that planet a human is quite the prized pet. I would have been enslaved to the royal family's bed and forced to be adored and spoiled as the seventeen royal daughters passed me around for procreation reasons." Hal shuddered in the memory.
"Sounds like heaven to me." Oliver snickered and Dinah hit his arm and frowned.
"Normally yes, it would, however the daughters had more tentacles than Japanese tentacle porn, sharp teeth around both mouths and an internal temperature that could incinerate my bones." Oliver reeled back and hid behind Dinah.
"Yikes, I wouldn't blame you then." Hal snorted into his cup with a glare.
"Conner, can we please talk?" Bruce asked as they found the teenage sitting at the shore of the pond that was a few feet away from the gazebo.
"What do we need to talk about, it's not like I was in charge of this trip and who was invited."
"But you do need to know why some actions were taken. Why certain words were said." Bruce tried to explain and Clark fidgeted beside him. Conner looked at the two expectantly.
"I was afraid." Clark said dejectedly. Conner snorted in disbelief.
"Oh really?" Clark nodded and sat down next to him.
"I was, or I still am. Not as much as what I was, but I still am afraid. I am not afraid of you, or what you were created to do, I know you're a good kid. It's Luthor I am afraid of." Conner looked at him shocked, this whole time he thought Superman hated him because of what he was. "I was afraid that if we were together and Luthor came after us, he would use you to hurt me, or me to hurt you. He's brainwashed me before, he'll do it again. Or even worse is if he would be about to kill you and I couldn't do anything to save you because of the kryptonite. I couldn't live with myself if you were killed because I couldn't protect you. So I pushed you away and had Bruce put you into your third father's care, because I know you will be safe with him. However I still want to be part of your life, if you'll have me." Conner looked at him and smiled.
"That would be nice. But if you are so worried about me, why are you dating him?" Conner gestured to Bruce.
"Because he's Batman." At confused look he chuckled. "Batman has without a doubt the most corrupt city, the most deadliest villains, and he takes care of it all without any powers and thinks things through. As you've probably noticed, we super powered beings have a habit of rushing in head first into danger. Bruce stays back, figures out a plan for each way that it could go to hell in a hand basket and pulls out a head almost every single time."
"Almost every time?"
"There was a small incident where I had my back broken." Bruce clarified and sat on the other side of Conner. "The point is, is that if Luthor comes after me, I don't have a handy cap like kryptonite that can make me weaker and a bigger target. I can look after myself. You however would have a harder time since Luthor knows everything about you. Giving you to Hal was his way of protecting you. He still very much cares for you Conner, and he'll start taking you to Smallville soon to help you train your powers better." Conner smiled and hugged Clark.
"Thank you for telling me." Clark smiled and kissed the top of his head.
"No problem son, now lets get back to the others, I hear Lisa up and about finishing breakfast so she'll be calling us soon." They all got up and went to join the others. Bruce whistled as he saw the scene in front of him. Barry had his hair done is a series of braids and two buns on his head, Dinah had an up do of curls and braids to look classy yet simple, Jade's hair was done in such a way you could see complex weaving under the waterfall of her ponytail, and Wally's hair was in the process of being sculpted into braids and pinned in an ordinate style.
"What is going on here?" Conner asked. Tim looked up from the book he was reading. He was fully dressed in new clothes and sitting on top of the now made bed.
"It started with Barry falling because of his hair and escalated into everyone wanting styling done by Hal." Conner raised an eyebrow but said nothing more. Lisa came in and giggled.
"Why Hal, I didn't know you were such a great stylist. Anyway breakfast is ready!" She chirped happily as she walked over to Wally and got him into his wheelchair.
"Perfect timing." Hal stretched his fingers, they had been cramping up from all the braiding. Getting up he followed the others to the dining room. As they sat down to the table Leonard looked at them strangely.
"When did you guys call the hair dresser?" He asked and the girls giggled.
"Hal did it all himself." He raised an eyebrow but said nothing. The group finished up and Barry immediately ran off and came back with his usual short hair cut.
"Ready for your hair cut Wally?" Wally bit his lip and looked up at Barry.
"Do I have to? I kinda like this." Barry smiled warmly and gave him a hug.
"No, you don't have to, but you do have to get in the van so we can leave." He winked and wheeled Wally out to the van and let Roy get in before he lifted Wally in and strapped him in. He gave him a kiss on the forehead and got out of the way for the others to get inside, Clark filling in the last spot. Barry started the van and waved good bye to their hosts and drove off. He put in a disc into the DVD player and soon the theme song for Sofia the First came on.
"Why are we watching this?" Artemis complained as she glared at the cutesy cartoon.
"Awww! She's so adorable." Jade cooed at the T.V. and sat forward so she could wrap her arms around Roy. "Do you think any child we have will be that adorable?" Roy grinned up at her.
"If she looks anything like you she will be, and just think, Uncle Ollie and Auntie Dinah will spoil her with all the gowns fit for a princess." They both giggled at the thought. Dinah and Oliver looked at each other in surprise. They hadn't known that they had felt so strongly about each other. Barry found himself smiling sadly, he didn't think he would be able to have any children now, Iris had been the only woman he had been attracted to. Now he was attracted to Hal, and both of them were male, so their chances of reproduction were slim. But then again he had Wally, and now Conner. And he could always adopt like Bruce did. He started to relax again and Hal glanced over at him.
"What'cha thinking about Bear?" He asked the silent blonde. The blonde smiled and shook his head.
"It's nothing. I am fine." Hal frowned for a second before smiling.
"Whatever you say, so where are we staying this time?" Hal turned back to look at Bruce.
"Cinderella's Castle." Wally gasped and smiled looking back at Bruce.
"Really?!" He looked so excited and Bruce gave him a soft smile.
"It's the first time for Tim, Conner, and our guests so I figured that it called for special accommodations." Wally smiled so brightly.
"Are you sure Bruce? For the length of time we'll be there that is really expensive." Clark looked down at the rich man. Bruce looked up with a deadpan look.
"You really did not ask me that." Clark chuckled nervously.
"Right, sorry." Bruce smiled and the rest of the car ride was spent in happy chatter. Late in the evening Barry pulled into the parking lot and bellhops quickly came out and took their bags inside and up to the predegsinated rooms once they checked in. They quickly settled in and Wally admired the look out of the Princess' suite. He was given the best room with Dick, Tim, and Conner. Dick unpacked both his and Wally's things and got him ready for bed, when he was ready Conner placed him in the bed before getting ready himself and tucking himself in. Hal, Barry and Bruce came in to wish them good night and then turned off the lights while Oliver, Dinah and Clark checked on the others. Clark came around last and wished Conner good night. Clark was the last one back to the rooms and settled in next to Bruce after he had showered and changed.
"Good night Bruce." Clark whispered to the billionaire.
"Good night Kal, I'm glad everything worked out." Clark gathered the black knight to his chest.
"So am I." He whispered before he was over come with sleep.
