stands_for_hope | The Metropolis Dork Squad, Captain America, and the Falcon in... Angst, Death, and Taxes

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house of am

The Metropolis Dork Squad, Captain America, and the Falcon in... Angst, Death, and Taxes

[continued from here]

The day had arrived. The trap had been set.

They'd gone to Lois's apartment the day before and made their intentions clear, hoping that with a short period of time, the HYDRA forces wouldn't be able to pull together anything that was too hard to handle.

Jim's paycheck had come in, so he'd treated a rather delicious dinner for the three of them, which had been followed up with some surveillance work, a couple of flights over the various buildings to scout for good positions (both to look for snipers and to drop Lois), and a watching of The Incredibles since there weren't any good games on.

Lois hadn't quite gotten Jim into a french braid with flowers, but she had managed to twist up a few smaller braids and tuck the remainder into a pony tail to keep the worst of it out of his face. If Lois was happy about it as much for it's utility as to give Jim a firm, physical reminder of the people who cared about him... well, she wasn't about to say it out loud.

Clark was with them until roughly half an hour before and informed them just before he left that Captain America was on the ground, apparently sketching one of the ruined and as yet unrepaired buildings on a bench nearby with large 'easel case' while the Falcon was half a mile away on a rooftop. Thankfully, while a good portion of the surrounding area had been destroyed during the attack on Metropolis, this neighborhood was semi-functional (if largely empty during the weekend) so he wasn't entirely out of place.

That just left Lois, her HYDRA pin tucked in place at her collar, and Jim in the empty office room, doing their best to psych themselves into believing this would work.

...and Clark going to investigate the singular figure hiding out on one of the higher rooftops nearby.

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"But that's not how you dance with a woman. ...At least, not a woman you want to be close to." He stood up, banana and beer put aside, and he had to think. First of all, he was going to have to teach Clark to lead, which meant he was going to be completely backward from what he knew. Second of all, he was going to have to dance with someone taller than him, and that was going to be awkward.

"First off, we need some kind of music."

Clark held up a finger before walking over to his laptop and opening it up. Then he was typing in an address--

"What kind of music?"

"Something slow. Slow is easier to learn than anything else I could teach you. Uh. Got anything... I dunno, Benny Goodman? Moonglow, Memories of You -- Glen Miller had a good one called... something about serenade." He shrugged, rolling his mechanical shoulder. The panels of his arm lifted for just a moment, a light little resettling. He didn't act like it was anything new and different.

It took him a moment of fiddling with Pandora, but soon enough 'Serenade in Blue' started playing out of the laptop speakers.

"That work?" he asked, looking up but not walking over. Best to make sure he had it right."

"I remember this one. Kind of short after you get through that intro, but not bad," Jim said after nodding. "So I'm gonna lead you first, since that's what I know, just to get you used to the moves, and then you can lead me. So this hand on my shoulder, I hold the other one, and with the one on your waist, I show you where I want you to move. That's why it's called leading."

It was a little awkward. Clark was taller - not to mention that he was a guy - but he'd known he was signing up for this to be a little weird.

Clark got into position and didn't seem particularly bothered at the awkwardness of the positioning. It was Jim, Jim was his friend, he was showing him something. At first, he responded a little too much to the leading from Jim before he got his bearings on the flow of the music and the responsive nature of the dance.

Then, as per usual, Clark was a ridiculously quick learner.

It was a short song, but it was enough for him to show Clark the basics - which was all he really needed, but-- "Now you need to learn to lead, and it'll probably be harder than me leading just because I'm not used to following."

Clark moved his hands and arms to where he remembered Jim's being and Pandora decided to follow up the song with Stardust by Arnie Shaw. Clark just smiled.

"Have I shown you Pandora? I should see if you can get that on your phone. You put in one song and it plays you a whole bunch of others just like it."

"I don't think my phone's that... uh. I don't think it can do that," he said, but he still took up the position and let Clark start to lead. "It's not like yours." It took him a minute to get the hang of going backward, longer than it had taken Clark to learn to follow, but he did get it before the song ended.

Clark's not a bad leader, and he smiles a little bit as he thinks of his mother's favorite movies.

"Ma'll be pleased I'm finally learning. She loves all those Fred Astaire Ginger Rogers movies." His father would spin her once, twice, and then start to dip her before she'd thwack his shoulder and they'd both dissolve into laughter; she wasn't a dancer, but it was still fun.

"Remind me to dance with your mom over Thanksgiving," Jim answered with a hint of a grin. "Okay, next you get to learn some of the more complicated stuff. Nothing like a Lindy but just a few things to be more interesting." A few little sways, a little bit of fancy footwork - since the music was coming from the computer and wasn't just cutting off. That was convenient - more than a live orchestra, even if live sounded better.

Clark moved along with Jim, grinning just a little.

"A Lindy? Should I be worried?"

"I can't show you without a partner who knows how," Jim said, "but trust me, if we were doing a Lindy, you'd know." Instead, he showed Clark some spins, how to twirl out and back, how to catch on the return from one of those spins-- a little fancy. Not hard.

Clark's a good student, not nearly as hesitant as his usual demeanor would indicate but willing to listen and learn without an overage of pride. He grinned a bit as he was spun and as he learned to spin, making sure not to lift off the ground even if it felt natural, and laughed a little as he got the hang of the steps.

"I never really got it before, how people did this for fun. But... it's actually pretty fun."

"It's fun, it's free, and you do it right, and your girl will love you for it - and now, you can take Lois out for some dancing. 'Least if there's any place that still plays this music, you can." Really, it was a productive evening. Clark picked things up fast - and as long as Lois could follow, Jim was sure both of them were set.

"Actually, there was something of a revival for it a few years back. It got to be a pretty big fad. There's a place in New Troy that I should take you to sometime. You'd love it. Plenty of girls waiting for a guy who knows what he's doing."

He nodded slowly, a little tentatively - "Sounds like something to do eventually. After we... get over this weekend." Because it was going to take time. For him, anyway.

"Well, I figure it'll take you a few weeks of paychecks to feel like you can buy yourself a nice suit. They've got... something of an anachronistic dress code, so to speak."

He snorted a laugh. "Maybe I should finally cut my hair, then."

"They're not that strict. It's just part of the fun to dress up. At least, that's what Jimmy at the office says."

He shrugged.

"As you've noticed, if I'm not on the vintage Krptonian wear, I'm pretty much here."

"I've done most of my shopping at secondhand places," he admitted, "except for the boots and the sleeve things. I need to find better ones, though. These hold in too much heat."

The music was still playing, but Clark knew well enough how to dance now. Jim headed back toward the couch.

Clark walked over and turned the music down, if not off. He liked having low level noise in the apartment to block out the rest of the world, and while usually it was the TV, he wasn't actually picky.

Then he was back at the couch.

"I'd offer to take you by where I go, but I have a feeling I'd just get mocked," he said with a good natured smile.

"Where do you go?" And, he had to wonder, why would he mock Clark for where he shopped?

"Oh. I generally go to Sears. But Lois makes fun because I dress, in her words 'like a 60 year old farm grandpa' which, granted, is kind of what I try for. At least out of the apartment."

He retrieved his beer from coffee table and leaned back on the couch.

Jim rolled his eyes. "You dress fine. If I dressed like I'm used to, she'd make fun of me, too. I just need to be more careful of how much heat can get out of my arm."

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