Hope you like the chapter. I wanted to try writing romance again, I know that's not my strong suit. Hopefully it turns out better than Inferno and Hotspot's chapters did. Please review!
"Mallory! Oh, you got here just in time. What do you think about a window seat in the living room?" Elaine asked, spreading the blueprints of the new part of the house for her daughter to see.
Mallory leaned over the table, squinting in concentration as she tried to imagine how the proposed seat would look with the rest of the room. "I think it's a good idea. You can get some blackout drapes and hide from Dad and Peter when they drive you crazy," she said.
Elaine chuckled and gave Mallory a hug. "You always know just what to say to talk me into something," Elaine said.
Mallory chuckled and tossed her wallet and phone on the couch. "Where are Dad and Peter, anyway?" she asked, looking around. The house was too quiet for her little brother to be home.
"Your dad took him to the amusement park for the day so I could finish making the plans. We have to have them done by the end of the week."
"I don't see why you need the extra space, it's just the three of you most of the time," Mallory commented, moving to the kitchen to get some water.
"Well, Peter isn't going to stay small forever. When he gets older, he's going to want a bigger room, and I think it's a good idea to have an extra room, just in case you want to stay for a few days or your dad wants to work from home for a while or something."
"If I want to stay over, I just sleep in the living room. You don't have to add a whole room just for me," Mallory said, hoping her parents weren't doing the project for her.
"No, I know that, dear, but this way you could have some privacy, and you wouldn't have to sleep on the couch. Besides, with the extra room, I might be able to take more clients, and having a place to close myself in will help me focus."
Mallory nodded and looked back at the blueprints. Her parents were adding two rooms onto the house, one downstairs and one upstairs. While the construction was going on, they would have access to the front of the house, but they would have limited access to the back rooms, which was one of the reasons she hadn't moved in with her parents while the Legionaires were at the cave.
"So, tell me what's been going on with you. I haven't seen you or Wally for ages," Elaine said, setting the blueprints aside and giving Mallory her full attention.
"Well, nothing much. We just went on a mission to Africa," Mallory said, leaving out the fact that there were people from the future at the cave and she might have latent super strength.
"Well, that sounds important. Who was it?" Elaine asked.
"Ultra Humanite. It didn't take long to take him down," Mallory replied, forcing the flashes of fighting her friends to the back of her mind.
"Well, good. I'm sure Superman appreciated the help." Mallory rolled her eyes and smiled. Sometimes she wondered if her mom really knew what the team was.
"Yeah, I'm sure the whole league did," she said. Elaine started to pull some things out of the refrigerator and line them up on the counter, and Mallory recognized the ingredients for egg salad and pulled out the bowl and utensils they would need.
"So, uh, have you seen much of Isaiah lately?" Elaine asked, her voice too casual.
Mallory's guard immediately rose and she raised an eyebrow slightly. "No, not since we broke up," she told her mom.
Elaine nodded and brought the boiled eggs to the counter to start making lunch.
"Why?" Mallory asked a moment later when Elaine didn't say anything else.
"Oh, well, nothing, really. I ran into his mom the other day, she came to the office to hire me to decorate her apartment."
"What?" Mallory asked, shocked.
"Yes, apparently she's moving to Central City for a change of scenery. It's a good thing you told them that we live in Central, that could have been a very awkward conversation if she hadn't known about the boarding school."
"Why does she need a change of scenery?" Mallory asked, worry tugging at her chest. Despite her and Isiah breaking up, she still cared about his family, and she still felt partially responsible for their separation.
"Their divorce went through, and Jerimiah got primary custody of Nikki and Isaiah. She gets them holidays."
Mallory felt like she'd been punched full force. She rubbed a hand across her forehead distractedly, her thoughts going from guilt to Isiah to Nikki. She hadn't been there for either of them. She hadn't even known that his parents were getting divorced. How had she missed that? She'd been training hard the last few months, but still. "Did she say anything else?" Mallory asked.
Elaine seemed to debate whether or not to say something, but she finally said, "She said Isaiah's been seeing a lot of a girl from his school, Toni something or other. She said she felt responsible for you and Isaiah breaking off, and that she thinks you two were perfect for each other."
Mallory's hand went to the figure around her neck unconsciously, the cool glass holding all the memories that she'd tried to push down these last few months. Old feelings stirred in her chest, but she shoved them to the side. What did it matter, anyway? He was dating someone else, and it wasn't like she could just fly to his doorstep and beg him to take her back. They would just end up breaking up again when things got hard, and they might have hard feelings towards each other if they did that. No, it was better to keep him a fond memory. Still, anger mingled with the feelings rising in her chest. He was the first person she'd ever fallen in love with, the first one she hadn't had to worry about her powers around. He had been most of her firsts, but apparently it hadn't meant that much to him if he was already dating someone else.
"Mallory?"
Elaine's voice brought her back to reality and she looked at her mom, hoping her face had stayed blank. "Hmm?"
"Are you all right?" Elaine asked gently.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just feel so bad about them getting divorced. I had hoped that they would work things out eventually," Mallory said smoothly. She sighed as she realized how good she was getting at lying.
"Yes, it is upsetting. Especially for Nikki. Well, you want to give me a hand with this?"
Mallory pulled a stool up to the counter and peeled eggs as her mom started dumping the other ingredients in a large bowl. The anger she felt didn't go away, nor did the hurt.
When Mallory zetaed to the cave around midnight, she was exhausted. She'd spent the whole day with her mom, then her dad and brother when they'd finally gotten home around three. After she'd left their house, she'd run a patrol in Metropolis, stopping an armed robbery and having to talk to Dan Turken for ten whole minutes about why Superman wasn't with her much lately and how he didn't approve much of kid heroes.
Now, she trudged across the living area, intending to go to her room, when a light clicked on in the kitchen. She squinted slightly, trying to focus her bleary eyes, and saw Brek sitting at the counter with a bowl of popcorn next to him.
"Wow, you've got the best timing. I just pulled this out of the quick heater," he said, gesturing to the microwave.
"Ok?" she said, and as soon as the word left her mouth she remembered that she'd told him she would watch Back to the Future with him. "Oh, I'm sorry, it totally slipped my mind," she said quickly.
"Great, so you're still gonna watch it, right?" Brek asked, his voice unsure.
"Uh, yeah, yeah. I'm just gonna go get out of my costume real quick. I'll be right back," she replied, forcing a smile on her face. She hurried to her room and got under a cold shower, effectively shocking herself awake, then she put on a sweater and leggings and went back out to the living room.
Brek was settled on the couch with the bowl on the coffee table, waiting. Mallory grabbed the remote and took her usual seat by the arm of the couch. Brek moved a little closer, closing much of the distance between them.
"Well, I hope this is good," he said with a smile. "I've been waiting to see it for two days."
Mallory chuckled and pressed play. Around the part where Marty goes to Doc's house to look for him, she fell asleep, slumping down and eventually leaning against Brek's shoulder.
Brek froze at first, not sure if he should wake her up or lean her the other way, but she looked so peaceful asleep that he couldn't bring himself to do anything. They sat like that for half of the movie, then she started to shake. At first he thought she was cold, but a few minutes later it became apparent that it was the opposite. Her body heat was rising, and she squinted her eyes tighter, like she was trying to block out an image. As the minutes passed, she became more and more discontent, until it almost hurt for her to be leaning against him. He watched her for a long time, trying to decide what to do.
Finally, when he couldn't take the heat anymore, he put an arm around her shoulder, pushing a cooling air onto her skin. It took a moment, but her temperature started to go back down, and she settled into a more comfortable sleep. He smiled to himself, his attention completely drawn away from the movie. She was one of the most revered heroes in history, but she sure looked cute when she was asleep.
An hour later, the movie had ended and Mallory was still asleep. Brek started wondering if he should wake her up now, or just stay there the rest of the night. A few minutes later, the zeta tube whirred to life and he heard Kid Flash's presence being announced in the training room. A shock of alarm went through him, knowing the sidekick would be in the living room in seconds. He decided to stay as quiet as he could in hopes that Wally would just go on about his business and not notice the two figures on the couch.
Kid Flash walked in and went straight to the kitchen, pulling a large box of something out of the cabinet and quickly eating the contents. Once he'd finished, he threw the box away and went to get a second, then a third. When he was almost done with the third box, Wolf walked in from the bedrooms and stopped at the doorway. Wally noticed the animal immediately and grinned.
"Hey, buddy. You want some?" he asked quietly.
Wolf eyed him disdainfully, but he walked to the counter to inspect the offering. He took the food and turned his back on Wally to eat it, and the speedster chuckled and muttered, "Your welcome."
This was when the hair raised on the back of the wolf's neck as he sensed the other presences in the room.
"Wolf?" Wally asked, his eyes glued on the animal.
Wolf moved to the front of the couch and let out a low warning growl. Wally walked to his side to see what had his attention, and he cocked his head to the side when he saw Brek and Mallory on the sofa.
Brek stared up at the hero, his heart thudding in his chest, embarrassment washing over him until he couldn't make eye contact with the speedster.
Then Wally chuckled and said, "Long night?"
Brek looked up tentatively and saw the speedster smiling in amusement at the Legionaire's predicament.
"Sort of," Brek said, careful not to change position. The last thing he wanted was for Mallory to wake up and see this exchange.
Wally looked over at the TV, which was sleeping, and said, "Let me guess, movie night after patrolling?"
Brek nodded, realizing now that she probably hadn't wanted to come back from a long day and night to watch Back to the Future with him, even if she had made the effort to be nice.
Wally shook his head. "Don't feel too bad, she does it all the time. You didn't have to stay with her, though."
Brek went to shrug and realized that he still had one arm around her from when he had tried to keep her temperature down. "I thought she was going to set the place on fire, the way she was heating up," he explained hastily, moving his arm and sending a gust of arctic wind straight up to demonstrate what he'd done to Mallory.
Wally nodded slowly, his face unreadable. "Well, I guess you're probably pretty bored and tired after sitting here being her pillow. I'll take over from here." He leaned down and gently scooped Mallory up bridal style. Her head rolled gently in the air for a moment before finding Wally's shoulder and snuggling into it. Brek's eyebrows went up slightly at how soundly she was sleeping.
Wally chuckled and said, "Once she's asleep, it takes falling out of bed to wake her up in the cave."
Brek smiled and tilted his head a little to get another look at Inferno asleep in her friend's arms. It was strange to him to see the team so close, really more like a family than friends. In the Legion, the heroes were strictly coworkers. Friendships and relationships within the group were discouraged because the superiors thought it could compromise a hero's focus in the field. Wally gave him a strange look, and Brek realized that he was staring and ripped his attention away from Mallory and let it settle on the speedster.
"What?" he asked, feeling his face flush a little.
Wally narrowed his eyes slightly like he was thinking something through, then he smiled amicably and said, "If you hurt her, you won't make it ten feet before we drop you." With that, he turned and carried Mallory out of the room, Wolf at his side.
Brek stared after him in shock, a shiver of fear inexplicably running down his spine as he watched the darkness swallow them up.
Wally chuckled to himself as he walked away from the Legionnaire. That had to be his favorite part of adopting Mallory as a little sister, threatening the boyfriends. He leaned against the panel to Mallory's door and they slid open noiselessly. He laid Mallory down on her bed, careful not to wake her. She curled up instinctively, and he threw a blanket over her. Wolf laid down next to her bed like she needed a protector, and Wally gave the scene one last affectionate glance before heading out the room and letting the doors slide shut behind him.