Again, I know I'm not the best with romance writing, but bear with me. And in this chapter I was trying to show that, while Mallory has become much more confident over the course of the story, she is still largely driven by fear and insecurities. I don't know if that really came across the way I wanted it to, so I'm sorry if it didn't. Anyway, enjoy and please review!
When Mallory woke up, she was in her own bed staring at the back of Wolf's monstrous head. She stretched and the wolf turned to face her. "Morning, boy. What are you doing here?" she murmured.
Wolf whined softly and nudged his cold nose under her arm insistently.
"Ok, I'm coming," she said tiredly. She stumbled to the door and opened it, then followed Wolf to the front door of the cave and pressed the button that opened it. Wolf ran out into the sun to do his morning ritual, and Mallory went to the kitchen to down some coffee before heading to school.
When she got there, she was a little surprised to see Wally sitting at the counter with a mixing bowl full of cereal and a plate stacked high with waffles that looked untouched.
"Hey, I was about to go get you, I swear," Wally said when he saw her.
"Sure, just as soon as you finished your first course," she shot back, going straight to the coffee machine and putting the water in it. "What are you doing here, anyway?" she asked as she waited for it to brew.
"I was running patrol late last night, and I didn't want to wake up my parents, or worse, Cousin Mia. I'd never leave the house again if she caught me sneaking in in the middle of the night."
Mallory smirked. "When's she leaving? She makes you life so difficult."
"Yeah, well, she doesn't see it that way. She's staying for the next week, at least. If I didn't think she'd try to follow me, I'd go stay with Robin until she leaves."
Mallory nodded absently, stirring some cream into her coffee.
"You ok?" Wally asked after a moment, noticing her silence, and her drink choice. She didn't normally need caffeine to get started in the morning.
"Yeah, fine. I just got some bad news yesterday," Mallory replied, forcing the gloomy air off of herself.
"You want to tell me?" Wally asked, watching her take a few gulps of her drink.
"No, I don't think so," Mallory replied.
Wally shrugged and smiled. "Ok. I mean, not like I tucked you in last night or anything."
"What?" Mallory asked.
"Well, you fell asleep on Polar Boy during your movie night. And I do mean on him."
Mallory felt her cheeks heat up and she tried to think back to the night before. The last thing she remembered was her and Brek sitting on the sofa to watch a movie. "Well, on a scale from he doesn't remember to I need to move out of the cave, how bad was it?" she asked nervously.
"Oh, it wasn't too bad. You've done it to everyone at the cave, we've all done it to you," Wally said.
"Yeah, but that's different. We're family, he's‒" she wasn't exactly sure what he was, so she let her voice cut short.
Wally shot her an amused look over his cereal bowl. "You want to finish that thought?" he asked.
She glared at him and he shrugged. "Ok, ok. It really wasn't that bad. He just didn't want to wake you up, so he stayed stuck there until I showed up, and I brought you to your room."
Mallory groaned. "Great. That's not embarrassing at all, having your teammate come to tuck you in," she muttered.
Wally smirked. "I wouldn't worry about it too much. He likes you, he'll probably think it was cute."
"What?" Mallory asked.
"He likes you. Did you not know? I thought you liked him, too."
"I don't like Brek, not like that anyway. Why would you say that and make this morning worse than it already is?" Mallory complained.
"Oh, come on, Mal, give the guy a chance. It's pretty obvious you two like each other. Besides, it would be a little awkward if you don't like him considering I already threatened him and everything."
"You what? Wally, I thought we talked about this when you and Roy and Robin threatened Isaiah. You don't have to do it."
Wally shrugged. "Don't worry about it, it's a pleasure. Hey, you should go get dressed. We need to get to school soon."
Mallory stared at him, debating whether she should fight the issue or not. After a second, she muffled a scream of frustration. She hated Mondays, and this new knowledge just made her want to crawl back into bed all the more.
She finished her drink and brought the cup to the sink, then leaned over the counter to grab two waffles off of Wally's stack.
"Hey! I was gonna eat those!" Wally complained.
Mallory took a bite and shrugged. "Sorry," she said unapologetically, hurrying to her room to get ready for school.
That afternoon when Mallory got back to the cave, Zatanna and Megan were waiting for her in the kitchen.
"We're taking the Legion on a tour of Happy Harbor," Zatanna said joylessly.
Mallory raised an eyebrow, slightly alarmed. "Ok?" she said, looking between her friends.
"They're driving me crazy!" Zatanna said once Megan linked them up.
"What happened?" Mallory asked.
Zatanna pulled her sleeve up to reveal a burn across her arm. "Your little puppy forgot to close the door to your training room. She could have burned down the whole mountain. And Kara was defending her! I wasn't even accusing Sandy, I was just trying to get her to help me put the fire out!" the magician ranted.
"How is giving them a tour of the town going to solve anything?" Mallory asked, fighting a grin.
"Because if they know their way around, they can leave and go have some fun outside of the cave. Maybe then we won't get in each others' way as much," Megan explained, giving Zatanna a look that said 'see, you can say it a nice way, too'.
"Ok, well, do they know we're going on a tour?" Mallory asked.
"Not yet. That's why we were waiting for you. They like you, so you should be the one to tell them that they're driving us to murder," Zatanna said.
Mallory couldn't help the laugh that came out of her. "Wow, Z, so dark. I didn't know you were capable of such thoughts."
Zatanna glared at her, and Mallory decided that she should go round up the futures if she wanted to stay in one piece.
Half an hour later, the Legion and the live-in team were in Happy Harbor deciding what to do first. Mallory and Brek stayed a few steps away since they'd already done the tour thing.
"I liked the movie," Brek said after a few minutes of watching the group decide what to do.
Mallory turned away from him so he wouldn't see her face flush. "Told you it was a classic," she said, surprised at how strong her voice came out.
"I'm sorry if I forced you to spend time with me last night," he said.
"No, it's not that. I shouldn't have run a patrol when I knew I had plans. I'm sorry about that," she said.
He half smiled. "You know, your team is really something," he said.
Mallory tilted her head, waiting for him to elaborate.
"You're, I don't know how to describe it. The Legion is a job. We're coworkers, and we put the mission first. With you, it's different. You really care about each other, more than just a passing friendship."
Mallory tilted her head slightly. "You and the others, you seem close. Maybe not as tight knit as the team is, but that's not necessarily a bad thing."
Brek shrugged. "We're closer than most of the Legion. We're a team, we go on all our missions together. The Legion is huge, though. Most of us are barely on a first name basis."
"That sounds hard. How can you trust them to watch your back if you don't really know them?"
"You can't, not really," Brek replied.
Mallory winced, trying to imagine what it would be like to go out into the field feeling alone. Megan waved them over to the rest of the group and Zatanna said, "We're just gonna go in a circle. We'll show them the shops and the school and all, then we'll do something fun." Mallory nodded and was about to follow the group when Brek put a hand on her arm.
"You want to go do something else? I don't need to see this little town again."
"Sure. What?" Mallory asked, glad that she wouldn't have to join in the awkward and boring tour.
"Well, I want to feel like a local," he said.
Mallory grinned. "Great, I know just the thing." She grabbed his wrist and started leading him away from the group, to the pier. There were fishermen selling their day's catch along with the supplies to roast them on the beach. She bought what they needed, then they went to a little mom and pop shop and bought the makings for smores.
"Ok, now we just need to find a good place to eat," Mallory said as they started out on the beach. There were several fire pits dug out on the beach already, and they selected one a little bit away from the lights of the boathouses and Mallory made a fire and started setting up the fish on a spit.
"We're gonna eat that?" Brek asked, wrinkling his nose as some grease dripped off the roasting fish.
Mallory smirked, but she reminded herself that even people in her own time didn't really do this too much. "I promise it tastes good. And it's really more about the experience than the fish."
A few minutes passed with them watching the waves break on the sand, then Mallory turned to see Brek looking at her. Her first instinct was to put her guard up, but what Wally had said that morning passed through her head and she relaxed a little.
"What?" she asked, rotating the fish.
"I was just thinking that if it wasn't for our mission, and Brainy sending us back too far, I never would have met you."
"Is that a crack about my age?" she asked with playful accusation.
Brek chuckled. "No, I mean, right now you're my age, and if I stayed here, or you came to the future, we would age together, so that doesn't really matter."
Mallory's thoughts raced. Why had he brought up aging together? And switching time periods? Was he testing the field? Seeing if she was interested in him? How was she supposed to answer that?
"Is time travel common in the future?" she asked, leaning back so she was propped up on one arm.
"It could be, but there's a lot of regulations on it. The Legion is the only group legally allowed to do it, but there's always enemies who manage to get their hands on a time machine somehow."
Mallory nodded. Apparently criminals of all times had resourcefulness in common.
"The future sounds interesting. I think It'd be fun to go there," Mallory mentioned. Brek took a long time to respond, and Mallory looked over to see him looking at her thoughtfully.
"I don't think you'd like it," he said finally.
"Why? Just because I make fun of it?" Mallory asked with a smile.
"No, because you're so used to your time. This time is where you belong, where you can trust each other and you have room to fly," he said seriously, his face falling a little.
"You seem disappointed," Mallory said quietly.
Brek shrugged. "Yeah, I guess I am. I'll miss you when I go back. I've never met anyone like you. You have such a great energy that people around you get too. I just…" he let his voice trail off, and dropped his gaze to the sand.
Mallory's heart hammered against her ribs, a fire burning in her chest. She leaned forward slowly and tilted his head up a little. At first he seemed surprised when her lips made contact with his, but he leaned into the kiss easily. The gentleness of the kiss stirred feelings in her chest, and she let them rise to the surface. When she pulled away, they stared at each other for a moment.
For a split second, alarm shot through her as she considered the possibility that Wally had been wrong, but then Brek smiled and she let the fear fly out the window. Brek cupped her cheek in his hand and lowered his lips back to hers. They stayed on the beach, neither noticing as the fish cooking at their feet slowly burned to a crisp, forgotten.