stands_for_hope | The Not Quite Justice League in... The Bee's Pleas!!!

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The Not Quite Justice League in... The Bee's Pleas!!!

[continued from here]

Finishing his article, clearing everything with Keith, those things took time. That was why it took a few hours before Clark was ready to make his usual call to Lois that night. He had worried that he might not make the time window that she cleared every day to talk to him and the others, but he was proud to say that he'd left himself an even half an hour as long as everything was to schedule.

After the fifth time she didn't pick up (didn't so much as text or ping him), it became clear that things were very much off schedule.

Clark made his way back to the main floor where everyone seemed to congregate and headed straight for Tony, holding up the phone to him.

"I know we're all tired and we've certainly had a long day, but... can you find out where Lois's phone is from the number here?"

In all the madness of the day, all the fighting and the close calls and the weakness brought on by the proximity of kryptonite, he'd lost track of her heartbeat. Usually, it was simple enough to pick up over the phone once again, a steady pulse that he could find his way back to once the phonecall had ended.

He couldn't hear her. He couldn't tell where she was. And she wasn't answering her phone. She always answered her phone. He didn't want to think anything was wrong, but he wasn't naive enough to discount something like this. Not after today. Not after they'd pulled out kryptonite weapons.

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Sandy's hand reached out to touch for a moment before realizing he was being rude, that there was a living person with possible boundaries there that he shouldn't infringe on. He pulled his hand back and turned to Mike with a smile.

"Good. I'm glad."

Mike smiled. "You can touch if you want to. Promise, it's okay."

Even if it hurt his bruise a little, he could live with it. If Sandy wanted to touch him, he'd let him. Without hesitation.

He reached over and made sure to slide his fingers gently along the lines of muscle where he wasn't injured, as much to feel for himself as to make sure that Mike knew he was interested. But within a few seconds, he pulled back.

"We'll save that for when you're not a landscape of bruises."

He laughed softly. "Okay, so I'll put you down on the schedule for once upon a never."

He wasn't angry or even upset. Bruises were just his reality. He was used to it.

"If you want me without bruises, it'll be a while. 'Til I retire, anyway."

"I don't want to hurt you, is all," he said honestly and he was smiling but there was something honest in his words.

How could he help but smile? Leaning in, he pressed a kiss to the spot behind Sandy's ear. "You're amazing."

He reached up, found Mike's hand, and wrapped his own around it.

"Well, as silicon-based lifeforms go... I'm not half bad."

"Mm, you've got that right. Definitely in my top three," he teased, squeezing Sandy's hand. "Wanna relax together for a while?"

He nodded in answer before reconsidering, reevaluating, forcing himself to be honest.

"I want to kiss you for a while," he said with a bashful, awkward little grin.

His brows rose and, grinning, he murmured, "Now that sounds like a great idea."

A gleam of mischief in his eyes, he pushed himself up toward the headboard and pulled Sandy with him. "C'mere, handsome."

Sandy went willingly, happily, but he held back, waiting to see if there was something Mike wanted him to do or a specific position that'd work best. This was all very much uncharted territory.

Mike guided him gently, up and onto his side so they could face each other, so he could have his arm around Sandy's waist and their foreheads gently touching. "How's this?"

Sand had to admit that this felt... intimate. Close. Warm. He liked it more than he knew how to describe aloud to someone else, which was why he ended up tipping his head to press a soft kiss on Mike's lips.

This definitely worked for him.

"Mm." It was an approving and pleased sound, his mouth opening just a touch under Sandy's. This kind of kissing was always welcome, if a little surprising. Kissing just for the sake of kissing. It'd been forever since he'd done it with anyone else - since he'd even felt like it. Now, it felt warm and comfortable and happy. Better than he had in ages.

He was no stranger to kissing, but it had been a damn long time. What he was a stranger to was feeling comfortable with it; what he had with Mike was something that had no strings attached, no great prophecies looming over his head. The only thing that had brought them together was Sandy's own willingness to let someone in (even if Wes had done a bit of nudging to remind him that he could).

Mike wanted him. Mike wanted him despite his crazy job, his strange life, the fact that he wasn't even carbon-based...

Mike enjoyed being with him, wasn't afraid to get close to him, thought he was... thought he was attractive and worth curling up next to.

...he was also, in Sandy's limited experience, a very good kisser and Sandy wouldn't lie and say it didn't make things that much nicer.

Mike had also learned from hard experience that he wasn't so good at getting along with other carbon-based life forms. Silicon-based, though, he was good with. AIs. And now, Sandy. His arms tightened just a little, tongue tracing his lower lip.

This was just what he needed. Someone who liked him as he was, not as he used to be. Someone who took him for exactly face value, because that... That was all he had. Face value was what he was. And to have that known...

He'd miss it when it was gone. He'd miss it so much.

"Mmm..."

Sandy got his hand up into Mike's hair and dipped in a little further, letting his mouth slip open to let Mike in.

He loved this. He felt...

He felt happy with Mike. He hadn't felt happy since before the Velvet Cage. He'd been content, he'd been satisfied, he'd even smiled. But happiness... peace...

A satisfied-sounding moan and Mike started to pull Sandy on top of him, rolling onto his back - and not at all stopping the kiss. It was a ... a thing with him. Being able to move, to move with his partner, to rearrange as the moment caught him. And just now, he was enjoying the idea of having Sandy's weight on top of him, the security of knowing what was behind him and what was in front of him, and the warmth of it all.

Sandy went where he was pulled, but he was careful to keep his weight balanced on the hand holding him up, his legs. He couldn't help bending down, leaning in, pressing for more. The whole thing was intoxicating and in a way that he felt good enjoying to the fullest.

For once, for himself, some of the weight of the Cage fell away. He'd been transformed to be here, to find Mike, to find this kind of happiness. Not just for the good of the world, but for his own good. And, he swore, Mike's.

His hand splayed against Sandy's back, asked permission at the hem of his shirt without a word - just a little tug on fabric and a touch to his skin. He wasn't trying to disrobe him. Just to give himself a little skin to touch.

He was starting to wonder how he'd gotten along without this for so long. Without someone to hold and to treat well and mean it. He hadn't felt like a person in so long that it actually felt new, and he knew that it was because of Sandy.

It was silly to want to curl up around him and protect him, but he felt the same way about Kitt. The thought made him laugh - softly, warmly, happily - against Sandy's lips.

He reached down and pulled his shirt out, an invitation for Mike to slip his hand underneath. It all felt so... real. For all the jokes, for as much as he was without such things within the earth, feeling air on his skin, feeling touch on his skin was so rare, precious...

He sucked in a breath at the simple feel of it, so unaccustomed to it, as his muscles flexed in response. When Mike laughed, he wasn't sure if Mike was amused at that, but he still felt safe. Wanted. Good.

It had him smiling against Mike and dipping in to press a quick little kiss of affection.

"Sorry. Not... no one ever-- this is new."

"Me, too," he admitted, "but... not laughing at you. I promise."

A light little kiss of his own and he murmured, "I just realised that the people I want to curl up around and protect are pretty much invulnerable." His forehead nudged against Sandy's. "Good thing I don't have male pride, right?"

"Then I'm glad I can at least be one load off your mind," Sandy said before kissing his cheek almost playfully.

"Mm... I'll still want to protect you from everything," he promised, turning his head to catch that kiss. "It's what I'm best at. Taking it so nobody else has to."

He'd always been tough enough. Tougher than anybody else he knew. He was used to shrugging off injuries, carrying more than his weight. He wasn't sure what to do if he didn't have to be a wall.

"You've already proven you can protect me from the thing that hurts me most of all," he told him, the honesty of his words proven in his eyes. That was part of it, a huge part of it. Mike made the weight of his mantel seem like something he could carry, but also something he could put aside at times. Mike had reminded him that he was more than just Sand, more than just sand, more than just the next Sandman and the JSA's recon man.

Mike reminded him that even though he was silicon, he was also human.

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