TOSoP 19

"Ragnarok!" exclaimed Kal-El, throwing a card on top of the pile.

"Kal-El, the point of the game is to prevent Ragnarok, not cause it," scolded Brainy, embarrassed about how happy Kal-El looked about his mistake.

"But Coluan mind puzzles are too hard," said Kal-El, "besides; 'Ragnarok' is just plain fun to say."

"Ragnarok," exclaimed Wisdom, throwing down a random card. She looked at the pile a moment before turning to a surprised Brainy. "He's right."

"Princess, a lady must always keep her voice as soft as the gentle breeze," Wisdom's assistant and Nanny scolded.

"Ragnarok," shouted Wisdom, throwing her remaining cards in the air.

"Ragnarok," shouted Kal-El, all too happy to join her in making a mess.

Brainy sighed when both Wisdom and Kal-El looked expectantly at him.

"Ragnarok," said Brainy, tossing his cards. "Wee…"

Wisdom and Kal-El looked at each other and laughed. During the three hours, they'd been on the ship together they started to get along in a way that almost frightened Brainy. It could only be worse if Zel-Kar had been there to further the chaos.

"My lady, we'll be arriving shortly. Please regain control of yourself," said the nanny, rushing about to gather the cards.

The moment the nanny's back was turned Wisdom bit her thumb in the nanny's direction. Like back in Earth's Shakespearian times, it was the Coluan equivalent of flipping someone the bird.

Not knowing this, Kal-El turned to Brainy with a questioning look and Brainy just shook his head.

Uncrossing her legs, Wisdom stood up, straightened her robes and put her hands back into her sleeves before sitting back down. She took in a deep breath and relaxed her face into an expressionless state.

"Creepy," commented Kal-El.

"Necessary," corrected Wisdom.

When they arrived on Colu there was a huge crowd of civilians waiting for them, forced to stand back by fences that would shock them if they got too close to the path Wisdom and her companions would be walking on. It was very strange to see, to Brainy, ancient Coluan civilians treated like cattle, but Brainy figured that it was to ensure the princess's safety. Before them there was a royal red carpet that lead to the castle.

"Brainiac Five," called the nanny, standing between them and the exit. "You shall walk a few feet behind the princess and I behind you." She turned to Kal-El. "You shall bring up the rear."

"Brainiac Five shall be walking with me," announced Wisdom, lacing her arm with Brainy's. "And Kal-El shall walk beside us. You shall bring up the rear."

The nanny looked horrified, staring at their arms as if afraid that it would somehow kill her charge but she shakily nodded her head.

"Brainiac Five, now that you are my brother, may I call you 'Brainy' as your adoptive family does?" asked Wisdom as they began to walk towards the exit.

"My lady, he's a commoner," exclaimed the nanny, regaining her strength. "You don't need to ask his permission for anything."

"You be silent," ordered Wisdom, not even turning to the nanny.

Bowing her head, the nanny became silent.

"May I, brother?" asked Wisdom.

"I would be honored," said Brainy, fearing the nanny would have a heart attack.

Allowing herself to smile for a moment, Wisdom signaled to both Brainy and Kal-El to be silent as they exited the ship. Her face returned to being expressionless and she waved to the cheering crowd.

The trio, and the nanny, were silent the entire walk to the castle. It made it all that easier to hear what the crowd was saying. Most were curious about Brainiac Five and asked each other questions as if Brainy couldn't hear them. Many of them were outraged at an outsider's presence and some of them shook the fence despite the pain it caused.

King Logic and Queen Patience were waiting for them within the castle. It was almost funny to see their eyes twitch at Wisdom and Brainy's interlaced arms.

"Brainiac Five, so happy you could join us," said King Logic still looking at their arms. "You'll stay longer then the alignment, I hope."

It sounded more like an order then a request.

"I fear that I can't," said Brainy. "Kal-El needs to be back for school the day after the alignment."

"Kal-El," repeated King Logic, looking up. It must have taken a lot of concentration to keep that vein in his forehead from bursting. He looked to Wisdom. "I see. Perhaps another time?"

Brainy didn't bother responding to that.

"Show our guests to their rooms," Queen Patience ordered the nanny.

"I'll show them mother," said Wisdom, leading Brainy and Kal-El away before either of her parents could protest.

Waiting until they were out of earshot of the king and queen, Brainy turned to Wisdom and asked, "Were you ordered to bring me here alone?"

"Maybe," said Wisdom.

"No offense, but your dad makes funny faces when he's trying to keep his head from exploding," said Kal-El.

"You should see him when he is exploding," said Wisdom, playing with the ends of her shortened hair with her free hand. She lead them to a corridor on the third floor and opened a door opposite of a statue of a man reading a book. "This shall be your room."

"Which one of us?" asked Brainy.

"Both," said Wisdom. "You saw the way people reacted to Kal-El. We can't leave him alone."

"I should be hated by society more often," said Kal-El cheerfully.

"Interesting one, your Kal-El," commented Wisdom, releasing Brainy's arm. "I'll come fetch you in the morning for the alignment."

After Wisdom headed back down the stairs, Kal-El grinned at Brainy.

"Your Kal-El?"

Brainy blushed and contemplated saying 'yes' but just went into the room wishing he knew why Wisdom had said that and that he had the ability to yell at her for it.

"You're so cute," commented Kal-El, walking into the room behind him and closing the door.

"I wish you'd stop saying such things all the time," said Brainy.

"How about half the time?" asked Kal-El.

"Forget it," said Brainy.

"So I can say such things all the time?" asked Kal-El.

"Go to bed," said Brainy, throwing one of the bed's many pillows at Kal-El.

Catching the pillow, Kal-El chuckled. He tossed it back onto the bed before turning to Brainy.

"I suppose that would be a good idea. I don't know about you but I wasn't able to get any sleep earlier. I guess it was because I was lonely."

Avoiding Kal-El's eye, Brainy firmly told himself there was no way he was going to admit to having similar problems. He began to take all the extra pillows off the bed, wondering what the point of having them all were.

Kal-El helped by, not taking them off one by one like Brainy, knocking them all to the ground with one energetic swoop.

Brainy turned to yell at Kal-El, but whatever he was going to say was forgotten when Kal-El grabbed hold of his face and captured his lips with his own. He had no time to think about what had just happened when a moan escaped him from Kal-El's gentle yet urgent caressing of his lips.

When Kal-El pulled away they were both panting and their faces were flushed. Still, he hadn't released his hold on Brainy's face.

"Have I told you that I love you yet today?"

"Yes," stammered Brainy, his face burning more then ever before.

"Oh, when?" chuckled Kal-El, kissing Brainy's cheek.

"Back in the music room when you saw me playing the lirit," whispered Brainy.

"Too long ago," murmured Kal-El, softly caressing Brainy's lips as he spoke. "I love you, Brainy."

This would be a good time to say something, Brainy told himself. Open your mouth and tell him you feel the same.

Brainy did open his mouth but he didn't get the chance to speak. Kal-El took the opportunity to initiate a battle between their tongues, moaning when Brainy clung to him. The next thing either of them knew they were on the bed, kissing and caressing each other.

Kal-El moved his mouth up to Brainy's ear, licking the lobe before nibbling on it. At the same time his hands were moving further down Brainy's body.

Gasping at the unexpected touch, Brainy's eyes shot open, allowing him to notice something on the ceiling. Panicking, he pushed Kal-El off of him.

Pounding his head on the bed, Kal-El moaned in defeat.

"Stupid hand… no patience…"

Not sure whether or not it was wise to comment, Brainy sat up and shook Kal-El's shoulder. When he had his attention he pointed at the ceiling.

In the center of the ceiling was a flower that looked like it was just part of the ceiling's engraved design. Only while the rest of the ceiling was white, it was grey.

"What is it?" asked Kal-El.

"A warning flower," said Brainy. "Back in this time they had them in all bedrooms, especially those of nobles and royals. It's basically." He paused, unsure how to phrase it. "It's basically a virgin protector."

Kal-El stared at Brainy in disbelief.

"A what?"

"It protects the virginity of anyone in the room," said Brainy nervously. "It turns grey when things start to, ah, 'heat up' and if it gets to black then someone in charge of whoever is staying in the room would be notified and they would come to… stop it before it gets too far. See, it's going back to white now."

Kal-El glared at the flower.

"How does the stupid thing even knows that we virgins?"

Blushing, Brainy really didn't want to answer that but he knew he probably wouldn't be left alone until he did.

"I'm not sure if it would work for non-Coluans but when a Coluan is a virgin they, ah, they smell different."

"Smell different?" questioned Kal-El, now looking at Brainy.

This couldn't be anymore embarrassing unless Zel-Kar was here to make jokes, thought Brainy.

"When Coluans are virgins they have a scent unique to them, like fingerprints or irises, but when they loose their virginity they take on some of the scent of the person they lost their virginity to. I don't know if a non-Coluan could tell the difference, but that's why Coluans almost always marry the person they loose their virginity to," explained Brainy, looking anywhere but at Kal-El.

"Out of curiosity, what would happen to the scent if a Coluan had sex with someone besides who they lost their virginity to?" asked Kal-El.

Stop asking me embarrassing questions, Brainy mentally demanded, but didn't voice any of this out loud.

"It, it depends on the situation. If it was consensual then the scent changes to the new, the new person. If not then the scent gets added on top of the original scent," said Brainy wishing for a black hole to swallow him up.

Not saying anything, Kal-El sat up and pulled Brainy to him. He wrapped one arm around Brainy's back, holding him in place, while his other hand buried itself into Brainy's hair. He then tucked his face into Brainy's neck and breathed him in.

Blushing and heart pounding madly out of control, Brainy didn't know what to say or do. He didn't think he could say anything even if he could think of anything to say. His heart was pounding far too loudly for the words to be heard.

"Perhaps we should use all of those pillows to make a barricade between us on the bed so I don't loose what little self control I have," said Kal-El, barely above a whisper with his lips still against Brainy's neck.

Brainy wanted to say that he didn't want to. That he was struggling just as much not to throw away his own self control and attach himself to Kal-El forever. That he was in love with him but none of these things came out. He rested his head on Kal-El's shoulder and simply held onto him, scared to let go.

When Brainy awoke the following morning he was again in Kal-El's arms, the barricade of pillows being tossed aside sometime during the night. At first he wasn't sure what woke him, wanting nothing more then return to his slumber and the warmth of their shared embrace.

Seeing that Brainy was about to drift off again, Wisdom shook his shoulder.

"Brother, it is time to awaken. The alignment begins shortly."

Not for the first time, Brainy cursed the alignment as he grudgingly pulled away from the still sleeping Kal-El.

The moment Brainy was no longer in his arms, Kal-El almost whined in disappointment. He reached out for him but when nothing could be found he rested again in the spot that still held Brainy's warmth.

"He loves you very much," commented Wisdom, smiling at Brainy's embarrassed smile. "And do you return that affection?"

"More then I thought imaginable," said Brainy, wishing that he knew how to say it to the one from whom those feeling grew.

"Then perhaps your arrival in this dimension was more then a chance but lady fate working her magic," said Wisdom. "Come, we can't be in a room with anyone else if we are to have a narrowed alignment."

When they left the room, Wisdom's Nanny was waiting for them outside in the hallway.

"You shall guard this room with your life," ordered Wisdom. "If anything happens to the Kryptonian inside, I shall see you hanged."

The Nanny nervously nodded and went to stand before the door as her princess and Brainy walked away.

"Why do you seem to hate her so much?" asked Brainy softly.

"Many reasons," said Wisdom, lacing her arm with Brainy's as they walked up the stairs. "But I suppose you shall see during our connection."

In all the worry about letting anyone see his memories, Brainy had forgotten that Wisdom would be sharing just as much of herself with him.

"Thank you for doing all this," said Brainy.

"Think nothing of it," said Wisdom, smiling gently up at him. "You are, after all, my brother."

Brainy returned her smile and thought of how much he already cared for this girl he had only met once before. He supposed much of it came from his admiration of her from history but there was something about her he immediately felt connected to.

They found a small empty sitting room and sat themselves on cushions facing each other in the center of the room.

"Father doesn't know that we're having a narrowed alignment," said Wisdom. "So be prepared for someone trying to intrude on our connection. If you feel any presence but mine push them out by concentrating on me. Understand?"

Brainy nodded, feeling more worried then before. Not for himself, but for Wisdom. Just how much was she risking by helping him?

"Don't worry about me, brother," said Wisdom. "I am his only heir. If anything happened to me, he would be executed and one of my cousins would assume the throne."

"I know he can't kill you, but-" began Brainy.

"The worst he can do is send mother to cut my hair and yell at me of how disappointed he is, as if that's anything new," said Wisdom, rolling her eyes.

A clock somewhere in the next room began to announce the new hour.

Wisdom took hold of Brainy's hands and leaned forward so their foreheads were pressed together.

"Concentrate on me. Only on me. You shall see all that I know, all that I am but you will immediately be alerted if something you don't want me to know begins to come to my mind. To stop it just order the memory to stop and something else will come to me instead. I will never share you with anyone else so please don't feel as though you need to hide from me. You are safe here, my brother."