The Metropolis Not!Vengers in... Location, location, location!

[stands_for_hope]

[continued from here]

Steve wakes up slowly, happy and warm and content enough he's not sure where he is at first. The clues he gets initially aren't helpful because they're such universal parts of his life, as far as his hindbrain is concerned, that they're just a part of 'how he should wake up'.

There's a warm body up against him, deep brown hair pressed up against his nose and mouth that smells like home, a ratty old mattress beneath him that's too firm for anyone but someone like him--

And a metal arm across his stomach. Huh. That shakes some things loose.

It doesn't halt the grin on his face, though. That's... probably never going away, or at least it won't be budging anytime soon (probably until Jim looks at him, disgusted, and tells him to 'stop lookin' like a loon'). Instead, he just reaches over to grab his phone from the the bedside table (amazing the things that survive a plain crash when they're kept in the right pocket) and peers at the time.

Huh. Nearly two. That's fair. But--

"Hey, sleepyhead. You get some good rest?"

Comments

[kolodnoykovki]

With his back turned to Clark, he sat down, raked his flesh-and-blood fingers through his hair to get it in some sort of order, then very intentionally closed his eyes. "We're still working out what works. It's been... what, seven hours?"

[stands_for_hope]

"In some ways. In others, it's been a lifetime. And at the same time, I'll make you a bet he'll still surprise you."

He started combing Jim's hair straight down, careful of tangles, working from a part right in the middle for the moment.

"Lois surprises me, after all."

Then he started snipping.

"It's one of the best parts."

[kolodnoykovki]

It took him a second to let go of his nerves surrounding the sound of the scissors, but then he was able to nod. "Yeah, he's-- I notice things now. Not sure if I didn't notice them before or if they're new, y'know?"

[stands_for_hope]

"Could be either. Could be both. It could also just be that he feels like he can be open about things now. Steve doesn't exactly strike me as simple."

He kept the snipping regular for a moment before settling his hand on Jim's shoulder.

"Want me to do this as quickly as possible or keep it sedate?"

[kolodnoykovki]

He glanced up and gave Clark a slightly shaky smile. "I'm okay. I'm just... reminding myself that I'm not having anything cut out - just something painless cut off."

[stands_for_hope]

"I've given myself a shave with the heat vision before when supplies were tight, but I don't think that's a great idea," he said with a small smile.

[kolodnoykovki]

"Yeah, the smell of burned hair is godawful. But I promise, I'm fine." He wasn't even nearly as on-edge as he had been. "Just more of what I was talkin' about. Normal things like that bein' a minefield."

[stands_for_hope]

"Well, thankfully, you probably won't need me to do this for a while. I'm going to cut it tight on the sides with some length on top to style as you like."

He started clipping the sides off a little quicker than was normal, but it was clear it was more about Clark's tendency to forget the usual pace of normal people than any attempt to rush.

[kolodnoykovki]

"That's about how I used to have it, except when I couldn't afford a barber. Then I'd just let it grow and slick it back." He was careful to hold still just to make sure there was no reason for those scissors to slip. Just in case.

[stands_for_hope]

Clark worked for another couple of minutes, scissors zipping almost too quick to see, the only sensation that of falling hair and soft puffs of air from Clark.

Eventually, he pulled the scissors away and gave one last puff before smiling over at Jim.

"Finished. Hope it isn't too close. I figured you wanted something familiar but a little different."

[kolodnoykovki]

He lifted the one hand that could feel and, for a moment, it felt alien. He was used to the longer hair, the ponytail, and when he drew the towel off, he could feel a breeze on the back of his neck that wasn't quite familiar. But then he looked into the mirror - and it was like looking at a memory. He was looking at Bucky Barnes. But it suited. At least for now, it suited. It wasn't like there were a lot of ways to do hair for a guy. "Looks good," he said, slowly nodding. "Thanks."

[stands_for_hope]

"You're welcome. Let me know if it needs a touch up or anything."

There was a soft breeze before the hair was all picked up and cleaned from the bathroom floor.

"Do you want it?"

[kolodnoykovki]

"...No," he answered, shaking his head. "No, it'll grow back eventually if I decide to let it." But then, with a slight smirk and a quick nudge of his fingers through his hair, he said, "Just wait for Steve to drop whatever he's holding when I go back in there, though."

[stands_for_hope]

Clark looked sideways at Jim.

"Why do I have a feeling I should make that a general warning for the foreseeable future?"

He closed his hand around the hair, grinding it down in his hand into a fine dust before letting it glitter into the toilet and flushing it down.

[kolodnoykovki]

He took the comb, wet it under the faucet, and with an old, practiced move, put a wave in his hair that was definitely from an older decade. "'Cause Steve's easy to tease and it's fun to watch his ears turn pink, that's why."

[stands_for_hope]

Clark watched him with a warm smile.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say that you and Lois shared DNA."

[kolodnoykovki]

"Might as well," he shrugged. "Between her being Dum-Dum's granddaughter and growin' up on the same base where I trained, it's pretty close." But a last little touch of his comb and he considered himself done. "...And this is just what I needed. I can deal with this one-handed."

[stands_for_hope]

"So I can see. Make your young man weak-kneed with just one hand," he teased before opening the door for Jim to slip out.

"Dinner smells good, though."

[kolodnoykovki]

"Then he really did learn to cook." But he shook his head, heading out. "We cooked about even when we lived together. People used to joke about him bein' my wife. I used to kick their asses over it about half the time."

[stands_for_hope]

"And the other half?" He had to admit he was curious. Jim was much more likely to mention growing up around Steve.

[kolodnoykovki]

"The other half was from people we both were friends with, and they were being friendly jerks instead of just jerks."

[stands_for_hope]

"That sounds nice," he admitted, thoughtful and a little quiet as he followed him back towards the kitchen.

"Not the, ugh, fighting. But the rest of it. I hope you know what I mean."

[kolodnoykovki]

"Do I need to kick somebody's ass for you?" he asked, glancing back to Clark. The phrasing had been plain enough for him to figure Clark had a non-friendly jerk in his life somewhere.

[stands_for_hope]

"Pete and I figured things out eventually," he said, not really meeting Jim's eyes, though likely not for the reason Jim would suspect.

Pete Ross had certainly changed after the accident on the bus, and for the better in a lot of ways, but they'd never exactly gotten close. Instead, the other boy had made gentle forays into the life of Clark Kent, but his mother's influence (and Jonathan Kent's) had largely kept it at that. Not to mention the roiling pit of conflicting emotions he still had to this day about the whole thing.

[kolodnoykovki]

"Hey." He slung an arm around Clark's shoulders. "Nobody messes with my friends. And you're too damn nice sometimes. Anybody bugs you, you tell me, I'll make sure they stop."

And then, he kicked in the Russian accent. "We Russians, living in the cold gives short tempers."