As always all characters are fictional. Wyvern, Deus, & Reaver are my characters. All other characters/locations are copyright of DC Comics & their respective creators.
The First Steps Towards the Future: The Wyvern Arrives Part XVII
Kara groaned at the loud voice that jarred her from a very nice dream. She felt CJ still there, but, the voice she heard was higher than his.
"Wha… M'up…" Then her eyes came into focus, Cassie gawking with a slack jawed stare and Diana just… eying them.
"Okay," Kara jumped out of bed holding her hands in front of her "I know this looks questionable, but it's not what you think!"
"Really?" Diana's face didn't change as she spoke in a very calm and collected voice. "Because it looks to me like you spent the night nestled in my son's arms."
"Okay so it is what you think." Kara realized her previous statement didn't leave her mouth as she had planned.
"Yes, we spent the night together… but, it was just sleeping, nothing else happened." CJ rose and stretched as Kara fumbled for an explanation.
"Really?" Diana's eyes took in Kara's clothing. "So, the clothes you're wearing now were the ones you've worn since last night?"
"I swear to you Diana, nothing has happened yet." Kara froze after the last word slipped. Just as the color was draining from her face CJ spoke up as she felt him embrace her.
"Mitera, can you please stop tormenting my girlfriend? Kara's virtue is intact and safe. I give you my word of honor."
"Bruce, you expecting a call about a date?" Lucius joked with him as they were reviewing some paperwork for upcoming merger talks.
"No, just some things on the home front." Bruce grumbled.
"You have it out with Richard again?"
"Something like that." As he put his phone away Bruce thought that it may be time to bite the proverbial bullet and seek an outside opinion.
'This is a consultation, not me asking for help!' the voice in his head screamed.
"You're a good father Lucius, how do you reestablish communications with your kids after successfully shoving your foot in your mouth?" Lucius was surprised with the look on his face as he spoke.
"You're serious, aren't you Bruce?"
While she was thankful for the help, Kara had no idea how CJ could be so calm about this. The whole situation was skewed from the start. As she glanced between CJ and Diana she noticed that CJ seemed almost like he was waiting for something to happen. As she glanced back at Diana, she saw her jaw clench and feared the worst.
"You may as well smile mitera, I know it's coming." Diana narrowed her eyes further at her son and Kara almost burst into hysterical laughter when CJ pouted out his lower lip and gave Diana his best puppy dog eyes. She felt his fingers playfully tugging at her lower lip and decided she couldn't dig the hole any deeper, so she followed suit. Diana's jaw clenched tighter, but her lips started to quiver. After a few seconds she sighed while a smile spread across her face.
"Don't expect that to work every time thisavros. Next time I may decide to ground you." CJ quickly fished out another device from his jacket and hit a few buttons.
"Wow, that brings the tally up to two hundred even." CJ smirked. Kara giggled as she asked
"Two hundred times you've gotten away with that?"
"Oh, I get away with that all the time, this is the two hundredth time I've been threatened with a reprisal." CJ replied with a smug grin.
Bruce remembered when CJ gave him a file showing what his abilities were. While he was multilingual, he usually used that as Batman.
"Do we have a translator lined up for these merger talks?" Bruce asked.
"Oh, thanks for reminding me, I need to get that setup." Lucius replied as he reached for the conference room phone.
"Don't worry about it, Lucius. I'll handle it." Bruce spoke up.
"You can make a call and get a certified linguist here for meeting with the Tokyo execs?" his COO seemed a bit incredulous at that bit of information.
"Okay smart-ass," Diana surprised Kara with her statement. "I want you back at the Manor before the day is out. I'll hear no arguments on this, you will speak to your father and patch up whatever issues you have." CJ made a slight grimace at that.
"I have to manually call the Moon Dragon, what will I do about the car?" CJ pointed out a flaw in his mother's demands.
"Oh, I'll keep an eye on it for you. It'll give you a reason to come back." Kara spoke up.
"You know what I mean Kara, a Lotus sitting in the garage will attract inquiries." CJ countered
"You have a Lotus… were you trying to draw attention to yourself?" Diana sputtered.
"It's your fault, you and dad picked it out!" CJ complained.
"You're trying to say we forced you to accept a very expensive car as a gift?" Diana's look was doubtful at best.
"I told you I would've been happy with a normal everyday car, but noooo! Diana Prince-Wayne's baby boy had to have something special for his graduating college at sixteen." Before she could react her cell went off.
"Hello, Bruce? Yes, CJ's here. Sure, you can talk to him." she glared at her son, daring him to disagree.
"Bruce, what are you doing?" He was interrupted as Bruce held up a finger.
"Hang on a second Lucius. Hello, Diana? Yeah, is Christian there? Hello? Oh, Christian! This is Bruce Wayne, I have a favor to ask, I hope you don't mind me calling your sister to get in touch with you. Hang on, I'll put you on speaker." As he set down his phone Lucius looked a bit dubious.
"Still there Christian?" Bruce spoke up as he gave Lucius a reassuring nod.
"Yes Mr. Wayne, but would it be possible to call me Chris please?" Bruce could hear more than one person in the background.
"Sure, I also have Lucius Fox with me. Oh, before I forget Lucius, here's his certification." CJ could hear the papers rustling as Lucius looked them over.
"Impressive, you're fluent in Japanese?" Lucius as he scanned the papers.
"Yes, all four aspects Mr. Fox." CJ spoke up.
"Four?" That surprised him.
"Reading, writing, speaking, and listening." Bruce turned his ear closer to the phone as he heard something in the background.
"Are you in Diana's room?" Bruce really wanted to know what was going on with his son at that moment.
"Oh hell, Kara, they aren't under the bed, I left my shoes in the living room." Bruce's face showed his shock at CJ's words, this was only compounded when he heard Kara call 'Found 'em!' a few seconds later.
"Why don't I call you back when you're less occupied?" Bruce was able to mask his surprise by sounding somewhat nervous.
"Actually, I'll be in Gotham for the next few days, would you prefer a face to face?" CJ offered.
"Sure, thanks for your time Chris." Bruce would definitely have a chat with his son about this new development.
After he hung up CJ tossed the phone back to Diana. "Nice improvisation thisavros, my brother?"
"Christian Prince." CJ grinned.
"Wow, how very original." Diana groaned.
"Well, you hate it when I try to use the Xiphos name." Diana's eyes widened at the name.
"Why would that name be an issue?" Kara asked as she sat next to CJ on the bed.
"That's kind of a long story Kara." She saw the barely visible shake of his head and heard Diana's sigh of relief.
"You expect me to leave it alone after that, what happened?" Kara pressed.
"You can discuss it later!" Diana cut Kara off as she pointed at CJ
"You, back to Wayne Manor." Kara was sure CJ would argue against that.
"I don't get breakfast?" She just didn't expect him to complain that way.
"No, home NOW!" She pointed to the door.
"Not even a cup of coffee?" he pleaded.
"No, too much of that stunts your growth." Diana almost growled.
"I'm taller than dad is mom, that argument doesn't work." CJ pointed out.
"HOME. NOW!" knowing he wouldn't win this argument, he stood, kissed Kara once more, and started for the door, but stopped when something caught his attention.
"You really should close your mouth cousin, you don't want to attract flies." he joked as he dashed out the door.
On the outskirts of Metropolis CJ met up with the Moon Dragon.
"So, how was the first date?" Deus seemed annoyingly giddy (quite a feat coming from a computer).
"Deus, I swear to God, you pull that shit again and I'll cut all outside communication and force you to watch reality television." CJ practically snarled.
"How the hell did I end up on strike two?!" Deus whined.
"Stop while you're behind in the count Deus." As he made his way to the quarters he'd kept on the ship for so long, he couldn't help but notice how things had changed. As he entered the room his eyes drifted to a drawer in the stand alone dresser that he had previously avoided. As he opened the drawer he found the pictures he'd practically hidden away had not even gathered dust. He chose to remove two of the pictures to take with him, but not keep, both showed him with his parents. Once was of a young CJ accepting the blue ribbon in one of the many science fairs he'd won, the second was of his parents with great smiles on their faces as their son graduated college.
"Planning to do some decorating bro?"
"Planning to give these to dad as a reminder of what his future holds." He pulled out two more pictures, both of him with his mother.
The second was taken shortly before Reaver had struck, he'd razed Wayne Manor to the ground only a few weeks later. As he stared at his mother, her face glowing with a warm smile as she leaned her head against her son's face. CJ smiled as the shot of him shamelessly mugging for the camera, his first two fingers of his right hand just below his right temple as his other two fingers here curled supporting his chin. As he remembered when the picture was taken another thought sprang into his mind.
"Deus, where are my rings?" after so long he'd honestly forgotten.
"Drawer above your pictures. Since you're in a better mood, I thought I'd tell you: I listened to your talk with your mom… ETA to Wayne Manor is four hours, thought you may want a shower and some coffee first." Deus chirped.
"Deus?" CJ warned.
"Yeah bro?" the OS sounded hopeful.
"That's two an a half."
"So, nothing happened… yet?" Diana sounded way to calm for Kara's liking.
"Diana I swear to you, this was a spur of the moment thing. Part of me thought about kissing him goodbye for the night, but I chose to invite him up."
As Diana opened her mouth to speak Kara cut her off. "I made the choice to see just what would happen."
"Which led to me finding the two of you asleep in each others arms." Diana pointed out.
"Yes, and I wont apologize for something I know is right." Diana smiled at Kara's change from stuttering teenager to a woman confident she was right in her choice of future lover.
Before she could thank Kara for the feeling of peace she'd granted her son, she felt an odd emotion from CJ. It wasn't danger, but, it wasn't harmless. It was somewhere in between, he felt almost… guarded.
As he made his way towards the pilot's seat, he felt it. Knowing this could only be one of a handful of beings that would announce their impending visit in such a manner he waited for them, but, didn't let his guard down. As she became visible CJ clamped down on a surge of appreciation (she'd never let him hear the end of it…)
"Well, it looks like you finally listened to your heart CJ." Aphrodite seemed to be beside herself with joy.
"One down and one to go." She missed his eyes narrowing.
"I give you this one warning, go near my father with your plots and I will stop you." His words gave her pause, his calm voice in stark opposition to the fear his glare would inspire.
"Is it just me, or were you happier when you were younger." When she received no response she continued
"Guess Athena already spilled the beans on us knowing about the Universe that you had to leave behind." She draped an arm around his shoulders in a friendly embrace.
"C'mon, tell big sissy Aphrodite all about it." Her smile was positively devious.
"You sound like my mother." CJ groaned as placed his hand over his face.
"No way, are you blushing? Artemis so lost the bet!" Aphrodite giggled.
"I am NOT blushing!" CJ growled.
"Then move your hand and prove it." She playfully tried to pry his hands away.
"I refuse to lower my hand simply to allow you to stare at my features longer." Apparently, she had been summoned back to Olympus, because he could see her starting to fade. CJ lowered his hand, thinking he was finished with this exchange, until he heard Aphrodite start singing
"CJ and Kara sitting in a tree…"