A/N: Sorry about the delay, people. I also apologise for the mistake made with Chapter 17. I have no idea when I made it, but Chapter 22 is as a consequence dedicated to One Over Infinity, for kindly bringing it to my attention :) Also thank you for the marvellous Daisy Jane for the beta - and enjoy the chapter!
I've been roaming around,
Always looking down at all I see,
Painted faces fill the places I can't reach,
You know that I could use somebody,
You know that I could use somebody,
Someone like you and all you know and how you speak,
Countless lovers under cover of the street,
You know that I could use somebody,
You know that I could use somebody,
Someone like you,
Use Somebody—Kings of Leon
Chapter Twenty Two
Alexa's first, overwhelming urge, was to giggle. She knew they'd been caught up with each other, but to entirely miss being towed through hyperspace—for Kal to miss it…
"I didn't hear a thing," he said.
She laughed. "Well, I knew I was good, but to disable Superman completely… I think that's the last piece of the puzzle in my plan for world domination. Lex Luthor ever try that?"
"Thankfully no," he shuddered. "Anyway, I think you need clothes before you can be appointed supreme world dictator."
"Good point. You don't happen to have a sewing kit on you?"
He actually looked genuinely surprised. "You don't have one in that belt of yours? Standards slipping between generations I see."
She narrowed her eyes at him, but he only grinned to show he meant it in jest, and she sighed. They still had a sartorial problem after all. Happily, there was something that had not slipped between generations, and that was having a backup plan. She touched her com-link. "Batwoman to Big Barda."
"I'm going to need your overrides."
"What?"
"For your quarters," Barda explained, sounding utterly smug. "If I'm going to pick up something for the two of you to wear, then I'll need the entry codes."
Alexa sighed, then asked in a resigned tone, "How?"
"Scott. He was the one who towed you back. They decided –"
"They?"
"Oh, Dove was with him," Barda told her, still sounding entirely gleeful and like she was really anticipating the weeks of teasing that were going to follow this, "Anyway, they decided it would be better not to interrupt you."
"Comms. channel?"
"Yep."
"Great."
"So, codes?"
"2292088," Alexa said. "Kal's is 6122113."
"I shouldn't be surprised you know that, should I?" he murmured with a wry smile.
"No," she grinned back. "Day you re-joined the League." More romantically, it was also the day they met, but that hadn't been his reasons for choosing it at the time, she was sure.
"What's yours?"
"The date my mother came back to Man's World. To Dad."
"Okay, I'll have your uniforms beamed to you in a few moments. Barda out."
Once Alexa had cut the connection, she buried her face in her hands. "I am never going to hear the end of this."
"Did she know before?"
She glanced up at him through her fingers. "Sort of. She's my best friend, it's difficult to hide stuff. And I wasn't doing a great job of hiding how I felt. Not with how much I panicked when …"
Kal took her hand. "When I disappeared?"
"Exactly."
Her eyes had gone distant again, and she worried at her slightly-swollen bottom lip. He squeezed her fingers, and she smiled gratefully. "Sorry. Brooding."
"Definitely your father's daughter."
She embraced him, closing tired eyes. "I really hope Gotham's quiet. I'm exhausted."
The sun—albeit filtered through the window—streamed into the Javelin, bathing them both and giving Kal all the replenishing energy he needed. It was almost impossible to believe that his arms were around her waist, that it was bare skin under her hands. Taking the opportunity, she uttered a silent prayer of thanks to Aphrodite for this. The goddess had to have granted it, and it seemed rude (and would likely invite her wrath) to ignore it.
"I'm sending your suits now," Barda said in her ear.
"Thank you."
There was a little burst of white light, and their clothing appeared on the floor of the Javelin. "I suggest the two of you invest in spares," Barda recommended cheerfully, before cutting the connection.
They dressed, then piloted the Javelin down to the Metrotower. It was surprisingly easy not to blush when they went into the Metrotower hangar, on the thirty-fifth floor. Barda was, naturally, waiting, and she had the biggest possible grin on her face. But Alexa was Batwoman now, with the mask and cowl familiarly in place. She did not get embarrassed. She didn't even have a concept ofit. It was helped by the fact that she wouldn't have felt ashamed of anything anyway. Unfortunate that Mr Miracle and Dove had been subjected to an audiobook version, but she and Kal had done nothing wrong. She fully expected—and anticipated—doing it again. Only this time she'd make sure that all cameras and microphones had been switched off. She was pretty sure that their sparring sessions were about to enter a delicious new phase of combat.
"When will I see you again?" Kal asked.
"You could come by the manor later," she suggested. "We could … work on the mission report together."
He grinned. "I'm not sure I could make a comprehensive job of the report at the moment."
"Neither could I. But, a few hours' rest and who knows?"
Before she went down the access ramp, Kal took her hand again. "Alexa, I don't just want this to be about that. You know that, don't you?"
"Of course I do. How about just dinner then?"
"Dinner's good. Eight?"
She smiled. "Eight it is."
They went down together, and Barda looked a little disappointed that she wasn't going to get a blush, but she recovered her professionalism quickly. "Superman, Batwoman. Welcome home. Mira's waiting for your debriefing."
"I'll go see her now," Kal said. "Excuse me."
Barda waited until he was safely out of the room before saying, "So? How was it?"
Alexa groaned. "Barda…"
"Jeez, he's not actually faster than a speeding bullet is he?"
She managed a small smirk. "Only in recovery time."
"Oh. I take it you won't be sitting down on any hard surfaces for a while then?"
"Honestly, the only surface I want to see right now is my bed."
"Well, hopefully the debriefing will be quick."
"Barda, I know we can trust Scott, but do I need to … have a word with Dove?"
She shook her head. "Wouldn't have thought so. He's terrified of you anyway, and now that Superman is your paramour, it's unlikely he'll say anything."
"Good. I'll apologise to Scott later."
"Not sure you need to do that either," Barda chortled. "I think he's trying to pretend it never happened. Even telling me made him really uncomfortable. I just wouldn't mention it at all."
"Fair enough."
Alexa went through a speedy debriefing with GL, then contacted her brother. "Tommy."
"Hey, sis. Back on terra firma?"
"Yes. Anything I should know about?"
"Nope. Just the usual –" there was the sound of a punch, then a grunt of effort from Tom before he continued, "criminals and scum. Nothing I can't handle."
"Sure?"
"Yeah."
"Alright, I'll see you back home."
The closer she got to the manor and her bed, the more her fatigue weighed on her. She went to the Batcave first though, updating her own logs and researching viable sources of tritium to be shipped to Pinea. Just as she was logging off, the batmobile swooped in, Thomas piloting. He jumped out and then hugged her.
"Good to have you back, Lexie."
"Good to be back."
He pulled away and winked. "Missed me?"
"As always. But the mission was successful, just. I mean, we almost got killed, but it all worked out in the end."
"I'll read the report later. I've missed you too, by the way. This place is too big for one person."
"Yeah—have you been staying in the city then?"
"Yeah, at the company penthouse. And I'll be back there tonight too, sorry."
"Party?"
He shook his head. "Date."
Dates, when you were Thomas Wayne, almost always meant sex, and Alexa was glad of it, for once. Tommy being out meant she had Kal had the whole mansion to themselves, to be themselves. Her mind immediately filled with images of all the opportunities that presented, but she doubted she'd be capable of the most of them by tonight. The more adventurous ones, anyway. Oblivious to his sister's thoughts, Tom chatted away about everything she'd missed while off-planet. Alexa (eventually) managed to drag her head out of the gutter to pay a decent amount of attention. He explained to her how the company fared, news from their family, the city and everything else. Then he made her breakfast, to cement his place as best-brother-in-the-world. They both went to bed after that and let the robot clear up.
In previous days and nights of sleep, Alexa had gone to bed always knowing what her dreams would bring her—a lot of heated images, yearning and then a serious bout of sexual frustration when she woke alone. Or in Michael's bed, as had happened before their break up. Granted, that meant it hadn't been sexual frustration that greeted her in the morning; more a strange kind of guilt at emotionally cheating on one of them, and physically cheating on the other. Tonight, though—or today, as the sun was just rising—she happily had no idea what her dreams might hold. If she was lucky, she might just get a rerun of the best seven hours thirty eight minutes of her life. She had to admit, relaxing against the snowy-white feather pillows, they were definitely some perks to being a meta.
It was five thirty in the afternoon when Tom finally dragged himself out of bed. He'd been more or less awake for the last hour, but had been dozing for that time. But the robot butler had just brought him fresh coffee and a fruit salad, so he really should get dressed. Once he was, he spent a little time in the cave before heading into the city. The clothes he'd planned to wear were still at the penthouse, and he wanted to impress his date. Charisma Worthington was her name; since their first rendezvous a week or so ago, they'd met for dinner a few times, as well as sex. He was, oddly enough, enjoying her company beyond the bedroom. She was funny, intelligent and not too clingy. He was really looking forward to tonight. Smirking at the thought of what Alexa would say if he told her he was actually interested in a girl—or his mother, for that matter—he finished his breakfast and took a shower. Diana had always maintained a trenchant disapproval of his many relationships with women, and part of Tom did feel guilty about it. He was as much Amazon as Alexa was, after all. It wasn't that he didn't respect women, of course he did—but so far he just hadn't fallen in love with any. Besides, he was only twenty three. Where was the rush?
Before he left the manor, he nipped upstairs to check on his sister. She was probably fine, but it had been almost twelve hours since she'd gone to bed. Having come from Pinea, it was probably a good idea to make sure she hadn't caught some kind of alien virus or something.
When he knocked softly on her bedroom door, there was no reply. He pushed it open cautiously. "Lexie?"
She was still asleep, sprawled across her pillows with her dark hair everywhere. Tom approached the edge of the bed as silently as possible, moving one lock of hair from her forehead to check her temperature. Normal. He checked her pulse too—also normal. She stirred at his touch, though she didn't open her eyes or wake up.
She smiled, turning over to her side and hugging a pillow. "Mmm, Kal … hold me …"
Eyebrows climbing to his hairline, Tom backed away and shut the door again, only then stopping to think about that. As he did, his eyebrows contracted again, into a frown. Alexa's voice had been sleepy, but perfectly clear. She had definitely been addressing Kal—as far as she knew, anyway. That was a little (well, more than a little) worrying, Tom thought, heading into the city. He'd known she was at least a little attracted to Kal, had been for a while. But he'd also assumed that the little school-girl crush had faded by now. And really, it had to have been a school-girl crush. There was no way it could go further. Even if Alexa did choose to – Well, be all Amazonian about it, Kal would never allow it to – He didn't think. Gods, he hoped not anyway. There was no way a physical relationship between the two of them would end well. But maybe I'm worrying over nothing, Tom reasoned. Kal doesn't seem like the type. And history was against the idea too—Diana and Bruce had always been best friends with Kal; it made sense that Alexa and Tom himself would simply serve as substitutes for their parents.
Pulling into the parking lot, Tom shook his head. "Nah. I'm being stupid," he said aloud.
It was about an hour before Kal was due to arrive that Alexa had got a crazy idea into her head. Which was, namely, to cook. And she couldn't cook. She had never been able to cook. At all. Toast was beyond her most days. Yet here she was, actually cutting vegetables and chicken in an attempt to make Thai food. The robo-chef had the ability to make any number of Thai dishes, and she had a Thai restaurant on speed-dial, but against all logic and sense, here she was. She had managed to put together a spice paste of ginger, lemongrass, garlic, chillies, galangal and lime leaves, which had been easy enough to do. Mainly because she could simply crush it to nothing with her fingers. The paste was currently in the wok, but as far as all the other ingredients went … she was failing miserably. And she had cut herself four times already. Who knew dead chicken could be such a tricky beast?
The door bell rang at eight on the dot. Which caused her to jump, which caused the knife to slip, which caused her to cut herself again. "Ow! Godsdammit …"
She went to the door and opened it, trying her best to look gorgeous. And she had made an effort, too—made sure her hair was smooth and shiny, and poker-straight today. Made sure she was wearing her best little black dress—vintage Chanel—and ruined it all with a bleeding finger. However, her attention was soon diverted; she wasn't the only one who had made an effort tonight. Kal wore dark jeans and a perfectly tailored black shirt and jacket—as well as the smile that had made her go consistently wobbly for months. She could do nothing but smile back.
"Hey."
She stopped aside to let him in. He stooped a little to kiss her—it had only been a few hours since he had last done so, but she couldn't help but respond with immediate passion. He did the same, and what had been a chaste hello-kiss turned into Kal being pressed against the door, his hands buried in her fragrant hair and mouths devouring each other. After she'd successfully forgotten how to breathe, he pulled away.
"You look beautiful."
She placed one more, feather-light kiss to his lips. "Not so bad yourself."
He paused, frowning. "Is something burning?"
Feeling a stab of panic, Alexa flew to the kitchen. "Dinner!"
On the stove, the spice paste was blackened and smouldering. Gritting her teeth against the growl of frustration that threatened to erupt, she tipped the whole lot—wok and all—into the trash.
"Alexa, are you cooking?" Kal asked, looking uncertain.
She crossed back over to the chopping board in an attempt to avoid his eyes. "Um … technically no. Technically I'm failing at – Ow!" Her sixth injury of the evening.
Kal (probably wisely) took the knife from her hand and lifted her cut finger to his mouth. It had already stopped bleeding, but it still felt better once it had been kissed better. "I thought princesses had servants for this kind of thing," he joked.
"On Themyscira we are all sisters, so no servants there, even if in this instance it would be nice," she admitted, blushing. "And no servants here to rescue me either. The robots only do what they're programmed to do."
Kal let out a deep chuckle. "You need an Alfred Pennyworth. He pretty much kept your father together. He really was the man behind the Bat."
"Yes, both Mom and Dad speak quite fondly of him. I suppose that's why we never had any human servants. No one could replace him," Alexa sighed.
"Well, I'm not unfamiliar to rescuing myself," Kal continued. "So please, allow me the pleasure, Your Highness."
She rolled her eyes. "By all means."
He lifted her hand and kissed it. "Then if I might make a suggestion … let's order takeout."
She grinned. "How did I ever live without you?"
After ordering, from the very obliging restaurant, dinner for the pair of them, Kal hung up with a smile. "Thirty to forty-five minutes."
"Hmm …" She wrapped her arms around his hips. "What could we do with forty-five minutes?"
His laugh warmed the gap between them—just before Alexa's lips closed it. He cupped her cheek, the other arm around her waist to pull her closer. The swell of her breasts pressed against his chest, and she stretched up in his arms to wrap hers around his shoulders, tilting her head in a clear invitation to deepen the kiss. He took it without much urging, one hand tangling through her dark hair as their tongues met. She shuddered with pleasure at the renewed taste of him - something she knew she'd never get tired of. She backed him slowly up, knowing the house to be empty and already too aroused too go as far as the bedroom. The hand formerly on her waist slipped upwards, tracing the line of her body to cup her breast; Alexa moaned into his mouth at the contact, arching her back to push more of the flesh into his hand while her hands moved to unzip his fly. Finding him already hard for her, she let out another moan, wrapping her hand around the hot flesh, pumping up and down. Kal pinched her nipple gently, then harder, his lips leaving hers to find her neck, nipping and licking along the column of it. With her breath coming in short sharp gasps already, all Alexa could do was shudder with pleasure. As her fingers increased their pace, Kal's hands fell to her hips and he pulled her foward, her legs on either side of his thigh. Alexandra couldn't help but rub herself against him.
"Hera... Kal, please..."
The next second he turned them, almost slamming her against the fridge door. She heard a faint ripping noise - but didn't mourn for her underwear - and then he was inside her. They both cried out at the contact, Alexa almost sobbing with the intensity of it. Goddesses above, he felt so wonderful, so perfect, so utterly made for her. In a vain effort to get him closer, feel more of him, her fingernails clawed at his shoulders, effortlessly tearing through his shirt. She didn't care. She'd bought it anyway. She bucked her hips in time to his thrusts; they drove each other higher, harder, faster. She lost all awareness of anything but Kal - the entire city could be standing in the doorway watching them and she wouldn't have noticed.
She had missed him. It had been a matter of hours...and she had missed him. But now she had him. She was made whole, and she never had to be incomplete again. Kal, groaning her name against her throat, tipped her over the edge into blinding orgasm as she felt him follow her into bliss.
Luckily, dinner took fifty minutes to be delivered.
A/N: Review please!