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

[stands_for_hope]

[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.

Comments

[stands_for_hope]

"The nice thing about easels is that they can move, Jim," Steve said with a little grin. Diana considered the garden as well.

"I will agree with Lois: whatever you make, I can be assured it will be lovely. You would not let it be less."

[kolodnoykovki]

But Jim put up his hands. "I'm not the artist or the farmer. I'm just the guy that knows how to nail things together."

[stands_for_hope]

"But it's amazing what you can do when I draw you something," Steve said as he leaned over and kissed the back of Jim's head.

Diana grinned.

"The skill of creating with one's hands... even the simplest of engineering can be beautiful. Do not discount yourself."

[kolodnoykovki]

He laughed softly, shaking his head. "C'mon. Let's have some cake."

[stands_for_hope]

Lois smirked up at him.

"A brilliant deflection by Rogers there," she noted, but she was content to let it stand in the face of cake.

"What kinda cake is this?"

Clark looked over as he sliced the first piece, plating it for Lois to show off the golden cake and the strawberry filling, as well as the chocolate fudge outer shell.

"...Clark, never stop being that perfect boyfriend who notices everything."

[kolodnoykovki]

Jim grinned. "I just suggested that we get your favourite kind. And some balloons. Everything else was done while I was making sure you napped all right."

[stands_for_hope]

"The finest in nap security," she assured him before reaching over with the three fingers she had working and bracing the other side of the spoon against one of her casts. It seemed to work, though the arrangement was somewhat delicate and probably wouldn't stand up to anything large or heavy.

All the same, Clark watched as she chopped off a piece and lifted it to her mouth.

"...mission successful."

[kolodnoykovki]

That was a good sight to see. It meant she was able, and that, in and of itself, was great. They wouldn't need to worry about her feeding herself. "All right - everybody get a slice now that it's been... inaugurated."

[stands_for_hope]

Clark started slicing up the cake, with Diana getting a large slice first before other plates were distributed.

"So what are the rest of the festivities? I'm going to have to bow out on the pinata, unfortunately."

[kolodnoykovki]

"Ice cream, movie night - after I wash your hair for you," Jim suggested. "How's that sound?"

[stands_for_hope]

"Heaven. Absolute heaven."

Diana swallowed the piece of cake she'd been chewing.

"I will assist you in the rest of your washing, if you would like."

"I totally would. After cake.

"Indeed."

[kolodnoykovki]

"Cake is the priority." He wasn't going to deny that, not in the least. Cake first. Then ice cream and blankets and relaxation and movies and being glad that they had Lois back. They were family again.

[stands_for_hope]

Clark leaned over and pressed a kiss into her hair.

"I got some of your favorite pajamas out. I'll bring them into the bathroom so you and Diana can get those on. Jim, you think you'll use the kitchen sink or the bathroom?"

[kolodnoykovki]

"Whichever one she wants. I'm kind of thinking kitchen might be easier, what with the sprayer thing." He was in favour of the sprayer thing. He'd already learned just how handy that could be.

[stands_for_hope]

"Ooh lala," Lois said with a grin back at Jim, "Gonna feel like Marcia's doing my hair, I bet, if you do the kitchen. Let's do that."

Then she was busy eating another piece of cake.

Steve walked back over, as he had managed to wander off for a moment, and gave Clark a low nod. Clark smiled back in appreciation.

[kolodnoykovki]

Jim smiled at them both. "I'll make it good," he promised. "Plenty of lather now that shampoo's surprisingly cheap. And I'll use the good conditioner. Even put it in a braid or rollers or whatever if you want."

So he was still a little behind the times as it came to hair.

[stands_for_hope]

"This hair needs to be blown out, unlike certain Amazonian princesses who somehow have long curly hair that dries perfectly by itself," Lois said with a glance over at Diana and a faint smirk. Diana shrugged, every ounce royalty but lacking in the snideness that could have been a part of the gesture, before she settled beside Lois.

"That does not mean I cannot learn to help you," she pointed out. "It will make me a better volunteer for the shelter, as well as provide me more information to help mentor the younger of our sisters that I teach."

[kolodnoykovki]

"Most of the hair I've ever washed has been fine and yellow." And Steve got a look. "And attached to someone who squirmed."

Now he knew why Steve had squirmed.

He liked it.

[justakidfrombrklyn]

Steve made a face at that and would deny that he was blushing just a little til the day that he died.

"To be fair, it was usually either red" because he was bleeding "or brown" because he'd been pushed into the dirt "when you were washing it."

[kolodnoykovki]

Jim smiled a little. "I didn't only wash your hair," he said quietly. "I washed your mom's a couple times when she wasn't feeling well and you were in school."

[justakidfrombrklyn]

There was a soft, warm smile at that.

"But she didn't squirm. That was all me. She mighta looked like you could knock her over with a strong wind same as me, but she was steady as a rock. S'why her needlework was always so nice."

It'd been a point of pride, that despite his sicknesses, their lack of funds, and Steve's tendency to get himself into trouble, Steve had had relatively good clothes. That had more to do with Sarah Rogers's skill with a needle than anything else, however.

[kolodnoykovki]

"Mm. Yeah," he exhaled. "Yeah, you were the squirmy one. And now I know why. But if I wash your hair, I'm gonna do it not in the kitchen."

There was a smirk crawling across his face and he was quite happy with it.

[canon_bondage_kink]

Lois looked over at Diana and there was something communicated there because the both of them giggled just a little before Clark shook his head at the lot of them before heading to the hall closet and coming back with a large flat case.

"You should be able to put Lois's chair on this," he offered, "so she can tip her head back into the sink without too much trouble."

[kolodnoykovki]

Jim nodded, as if he hadn't been making innuendos just minutes before. "And I'll get some towels to put behind her neck. Nothin' but comfort."

He was determined.

[stands_for_hope]

Clark shared a look with Steve.

"We're gonna continue working on tweaking things around the apartment. Lois, I leave you in Jim and Diana's capable hands?"

Lois grinned up at him.

"Of course you do. You're smart."