LOS:Broken Gears Chp6

Chapter 6

The inside of Legion Headquarters looked completely different from ever before. Not only were there decorations of hearts and little cupids everywhere, but the entire room was filled with legionnaires. Not only that, but they were all dressed in normal, everyday clothes like Saturn Girl. It almost looked like a very casual dance at Clark’s old high school instead of the home base for a society of superheroes. Complete with music actually playing and some people dancing.

“This is amazing,” said Clark, walking further into the festivities.

“You’re telling me,” exclaimed Bouncing Boy. He was wearing a T-shirt of some horror movie and jeans. “There’s like twenty different kinds of chocolates here. Most of it is from the store, but you gotta try the stuff Timber Wolf made.”

“How was all of this planned in such a short amount of time?” asked Brainy.

“It wasn’t. This was in the works practically the moment Clark finished telling us about Valentine’s Day. It was all Saturn Girl and Phantom Girl were talking about when we were on watch duty,” said Bouncing Boy, faking a snore afterwards.

All of the sudden the three parts of Triplicate Girl came up from behind and tackled Brainy in a hug all at once. They all wore a black silky looking oriental dress that ended were her legion skirt usually did. Each Triplicate Girl had the design of dragons flying through the sky in their own color. Then the orange one patted him on the head, while the purple one kissed his cheek and the white one spoke.

“You look so cute Brainy. I had no idea you kept any of the clothes we gave you.”

“You should have worn one of those button up shirts,” said Orange Triplicate Girl.

“A suit would have been very dashing,” said Purple Triplicate Girl.

“He doesn’t have a suit,” pointed out White Triplicate Girl.

“Then we’ll have to get him one,” insisted Purple Triplicate Girl.

“Laser canons,” stated Brainy.

“Awwwwww,” the Triplicate Girls pouted and let go of Brainy as they morphed back into one being. When they did the pattern of the dress contained all three of her colors. “That’s not fair.”

“Either is trying to decide what I wear for me,” said Brainy.

Triplicate Girl smiled and jokingly rolled her eyes.

“There are worst things. Hey Bouncy, do you wanna dance with me?”

Bouncing Boy blushed but nodded and they walked off together. They joined Phantom Girl, Timber Wolf, the two CB’s and many legionnaire Clark didn’t know by name, or didn’t recognize out of their suits, there.

It was at this point Clark noticed some people had additions to their outfits. Along with her black skirt and white tan top, Phantom Girl had two paper arrows tied onto her right wrist, one was pink and one that was blue. Triplicate Girl had the same arrows on her wrist. On the other hand Bouncing Boy and Timber Wolf, in his black t-shirt and jeans, had no arrows at all.

All around them there were people with arrows on their wrists. Most of the boys had blue arrows on their wrists while girls had pink ones. Some people had both colors, some had none and one girl, that Clark couldn’t recognize, had two pink ones.

“What’s with all the arrows?” asked Clark.

“It’s not a typical Valentine’s Day custom?” asked Brainy.

“Not where I come from at least,” said Clark.

“I see Lighting Lad over there. Let’s go ask him,” said Brainy, pointing to his left and headed in that direction.

Clark was about to follow when a hand on his shoulder stopped him. It was Saturn Girl, with a pink arrow on her wrist and two blue ones in her hands.

“Here are yours and Brainy’s arrows,” said Saturn Girl, handing them to Clark.

“What are they for?” asked Clark.

“It was an idea Phantom Girl and I came up with,” said Saturn Girl. “Everyone gets an arrow with a blue or pink arrow representing their gender and they tie them to their wrists. If they want, they can give their arrow to someone as a love confession.”

Out of curiosity, Clark looked around for the girl with the two pink hearts on her wrist but couldn’t see her anywhere.

“What happened if the person rejects you?”

“Then they can accept the arrow in appreciation of the persons feelings or simply decline it,” said Saturn Girl, smiling in a way that reminded Clark of the woman with the lasso on the fountain. “Now go give Brainy the arrow.”

Clark wondered why they had come up with such an idea, as he walked away from Saturn Girl to find Brainy. Confessing you liked someone was hard enough without you advertising it to your friends. Yet a lot of people had already done it, including a pair of girls. How he really wanted to know who they were an ask their advice.

Just as Clark found Brainy, he noticed his shoe was untied.

Spotting Clark behind him, Brainy turned to him.

“I lost track of Lighting Lad. Did you find what they’re for?”

“Yea, but could you hold these a sec,” asked Clark, handing Brainy both of the arrows. He bent down to tie his shoe, half thinking how it was a good thing no one’s super suit ever had shoe laces.

“Hey Brainy, you need help with that?” asked Phantom Girl’s voice.

When Clark looked up, his heart nearly stopped. Phantom Girl had tied both of the blue arrows onto Brainy’s wrist.

“Phantom Girl!”

The said heroine gave Clark an odd look.

“What?”

“I-you- I can’t believe you,” stammered Clark, unable to form the words properly in his head, let alone his mouth.

“You're welcome,” stated Phantom Girl, walking off to rejoin Timber Wolf at the refreshment table.

“So what are these for?” asked Brainy.

“Those are for-ah- that is…” began Clark, struggling to stand back up. “This is the most embarrassing question you have ever asked me.”

Brainy examined Clark’s blushing face and then looked around himself. He quickly noticed how people were paired off; double arrows with non-arrows.

“Oh… do you want it back?”

Tell him to keep it. Tell him to keep it, Clark’s mind screamed.

Without waiting for an answer Brainy tried to untie the arrow, only to find that he couldn’t. It was then he noticed that the ‘string’ was some sort of wire. Upon looking at it closer, he realized what it was.

“This is a duration cuff that once two of them are together, will only release after a certain amount of time has past. In this case, probably midnight.”

Clark felt instantly relieved, but still completely embarrassed. He tried to laugh the situation off.

“Well, I don’t mind if you don’t.”

“I don’t mind,” stated Brainy simply.

---------

The party continued until midnight, with lots of strange music that Clark never even imagined. There were lots of games as well, including spin the bottle and, for some odd reason, pin the tail on the donkey. The food had been delicious, especially the double chocolate chip cookies Timber Wolf had made.

“You should be in the kitchen when he cooks,” said Phantom Girl. “It’s really fun to steal some of the batter when he’s not looking. Plus the apron is hilarious.”

“I don’t wear a apron,” muttered Timber Wolf.

“I know, but would you if I bought you one, my little house wife,” asked Phantom Girl, laughing at Timber Wolf’s growl.

It had also been interesting to watch the interaction between Lighting Lad, who wore the football jersey of a team Clark wondered was even real, and Saturn Girl. They spent most of the night together, both of them keeping their respective arrows. During some of the songs that sounded like jazzed up swing, and two slow songs, they even danced together.

Around ten o’ clock Phantom Girl phased out from the floor behind them and stole Saturn Girl’s arrow. At the same time the Triplicate Girls tackled Lighting Lad to the ground. With their surprise attack it only took seconds for them to tie Saturn Girl’s arrow to Lighting Lad’s wrist. Afterwards he yelled at them, but no one really complained.

The best part of the night had been that Clark and Brainy had continued to spend it together. They, mostly Clark, ate the variety of chocolates and they walked around talking about random things. Brainy asked many questions about how accurate the party was with Valentine’s Day traditions and other such things. And throughout the night, Clark’s heart sang as Brainy’s eyes got lighter and lighter. By midnight they were lighter then when they had first changed. By Clark’s guess, about halfway to his original shade.

At midnight the ties of the arrows seemed to evaporate, leaving only the arrows. Most of the people who paired off, including Lighting Lad and Saturn Girl, tore each of the arrows vertically in half and reattached them so each arrow was half of each color and each person took one of them. Clark didn’t say anything, allowing Brainy to do with them whatever he pleased.

Everyone helped with cleaning up the mess from the party, especially Colossal Boy who got everything off the ceiling. Then most of the legionnaire left for their homes or the other bases they usually stayed. Some of them opted to stay the night and leave later that morning after some rest.

It was during clean up that Clark and Brainy had separated to help in different duties. Clark helped moved heavier things while Brainy wouldn’t let anyone else touch the decorations people had dared to put on the computer mainframe. At one point he demanded who put flower stickers over the notes on the keyboard.

On the one hand it was nice to see Brainy acting more like his normal self but it made Clark worry that it mean the end of their spending time together. Sure they did lots of legion stuff together, but then it was more like doing a common duty then spending time together and it just wasn’t the same as doing things for the sole purpose of ‘just because’. Plus, other people were almost always around during those activities. He wanted to spend time with Brainy one on one. Then there was the whole issue on where Clark was sleeping that night.

If Clark was honest, he would say he wanted to sleep next to Brainy again. He wanted to hold Brainy against him again, feel his breathing against him and watch his relaxed face in slumber. But there was no way to say this to Brainy, even if he had never promised Lighting Lad to wait a while before saying anything about his feelings to Brainy. It was just far too embarrassing.

Clark finished cleaning before Brainy did, and by that point everyone had either left or gone to other parts of the headquarters. He walked over to the genius.

“Any luck to finding the culprit that put stickers on the computer?”

“Everyone denies knowing anything about it,” said Brainy, removing the last of it and putting it in the trash bag he had filled with fake paper flowers, ribbons, streamers and stickers after tearing said stickers into little pieces. “At least they came off relatively easy.”

“That’s good,” said Clark, feeling as though his mind was screaming at him for not saying what he really wanted to say. If he didn’t leave soon he’d end up blurting out something stupid. “Well… good night.”

As Clark turned around to leave, he considered using super speed to get away before he considered turning back around. Luckily for him, Brainy intervened on his internal struggle.

“Could you wait a second?”

“Sure,” said Clark in a way he thought sounded too eager.

Brainy threw the trash away and he and Clark walked towards the living quarters together.

“I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate everything you’ve done the last couple of days,” said Brainy.

“It was my pleasure- not that what happened was a good thing! I mean, I was happy to help but unhappy that you needed it! Not that it was a bother you needing help,” said Clark, feeling as though his tongue forgot how to work properly. “I-I’m here for you whenever you need me!”

Real smooth cape boy.

“I know,” said Brainy, smiling to himself. He half wondered how blind Lois Lane had been to see only the super hero version of the boy, to her a man, beside him.

When they reached the part where they had to go separate ways, they both said good night and turned in their own direction. That’s why it probably really surprised Clark to feel something physically holding him back. He turned his head to see that Brainy had fully turned back around to face him and was holding onto Clark’s sweater vest.

There was no mistaking the dark green coming from Brainy’s cheeks and that his eyes were staring at where he was holding onto Clark.

“This is going to sound… stupid, but would you mind spending the night with me again?” He looked up into Clark’s face. “You don’t even have to talk, just.” His eyes drifted downwards again. “Be there.”

Clark might have started to float in the air with happiness if he hadn’t done what he did next. He turned, reaching forward, and gently pulled Brainy to him by the back of his head. Without hesitation, he kissed Brainy’s forehead.

Both boys then stared at each other, shocked by what just happened.

Well, he’s not yelling, running away or threatening me with his laser canons. That has to be a good sign, thought Clark. Now what?

He panicked and let go of Brainy.

“I-I’ll go get my pajamas and meet you there.”

With that he ran off quicker then a speeding bullet.

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By the time Clark had changed and gotten to Brainy’s room, brining along his super suit, just in case, Brainy had already changed into his own pajamas. They greeted each other, but the air filled with tension that not even a samurai sword could cut.

It seemed like the silence, and them standing around awkwardly, would last forever until Clark noticed something; Brainy wasn’t wearing any shoes. This was the first time he saw Brainy’s feet without anything covering them.

Brainy’s feet were just like any other human feet, except they were green like the rest of him. There was a big toe, and four smaller toes on each foot. The main difference was that the toes had black lines at the joints and where they connected to the rest of the foot like his fingers with his hand.

For whatever reason, the image of Brainy stretching out his toes in a attack entered Clark’s mind. For an even odder reason, the attack was one of a tickling nature on Lighting Lad. Clark couldn’t help but start laughing.

The sudden change in Clark’s earlier nervous demeanor surprised Brainy.

“What?”

“Brainy, do your toes extend out like your fingers?” asked Clark, trying hard to stop any more laughter from coming out.

Confused, Brainy glanced down at his feet.

“No, why?”

After Clark finished explaining what he had thought of, he couldn’t stop himself from laughing again. His laughter increased when he saw Brainy’s expression, one of wonderment of where such an idea came from and somewhat horrified in his embarrassment.

As Clark laughed, Brainy found his horror disappearing. Then he saw how Clark had found it funny. Then, without further provocation, he started to laugh too.

They both laughed like that for a while until they both collapsed from exhaustion onto the bed.

“I’ll never understand how your brain works,” commented Brainy, wiping some moisture from his eye from laughing too hard.

“That’s because I’m dark and mysterious,” joked Clark, almost making Brainy start laughing all over again.

Without any sign from the other they sat on the bed and pulled back the covers. Silently, they arranged themselves so they were in the same spots as before and laid down.

Clark hesitantly reached out and pulled Brainy to him like he had the night before. He met no resistance.

“Good night Brainy.”

“Good night Clark.”