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Road Trip	By : Kip Category: DC Verse Cartoons > Justice League Views: 4334 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own The Justice League, and I do not make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
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"Bruce! Freeze!" Melly was obviously paying very close attention.
Instinctively, Bruce did as instructed, hearing tiny rumbling sounds coming from within the wall. Twisting carefully, the young woman reached down with the end of her calliper and pressed several of the stair blocks in a complicated pattern.
"Don't look so worried." She smiled down at him. "It's okay, we do get one or two second chances out here, but not many." Lifting the calliper back up, Melly rested her weight back on it. "Not often that having one of these comes in handy." She added conversationally.
Nodding grimly, Bruce resolved to pay more attention to what he was doing with his feet. Strange how being numb didn’t seem to stop him feeling the stone shards digging in?
Damned inconvenient too… no mystery as to why early humans opted to start wearing shoes…
Finally the majority of the stairs were behind them. By now the rain had settled in to a steady drizzle.
"Okay, we're at the door. Pass by me and get yourselves inside." Melly told him. "You'll be okay in there, there aren't any traps once you get beyond the door frame."
Nodding breathlessly, Bruce stumbled in through the yawning opening. Climbing with both arms wrapped tight around Kal, while simultaneously shivering from the cold, had meant that he was barely more secure on his feet than Melly, and it was with intense relief that he heard the outer door close safely behind them, and felt the howling gale cut off.
"Welcome to the Hall." Their genial hostess announced happily, securing the huge stone with practised movements.
Bruce barely registered that there was light in the passage, or the hum of a generator. His feet were aching, and his legs. His arm joints screamed in protest from being locked tight around Kal for so long, and he felt as if he might never stand straight again.
"Kal doesn’t look too good." Melly sounded worried. "Did he hit his head?"
"I don't exactly know what happened." Bruce took the easy option and told the truth selectively. "We have to get him dry, and fast."
"Follow me, you can bring him into the parlour, I usually nap on the parlour couch in the afternoons, and I left the extra bedstuff ready for after I came back in from checking the loading gear. We can wrap the other blanket around Kal while we dry him." She pointed to what looked like a large door set in the wall. "See this wooden panel?"
"Yes?"
"That's our airing cupboard." Melly pulled open the panel and snatched a single towel out from inside. "It's full of spare linen - towels and such. You're both welcome to whatever you need, I can't carry more than one thing at a time though." She explained, draping the soft cloth over her shoulder and manoeuvring herself deftly along the curving passage.
"Here we are." Melly gestured for Bruce to precede her into the room. "Set Kal down on the sofa. You go grab a bundle of towels and sort yourself out. I'll get started on drying him."
Carefully, Bruce lowered Kal onto the solidly padded sofa, and pulled the blanket over him. Ignoring the complaints from his own battered body, he returned to the airing cupboard and fetched several large towels and handed a fresh supply to Melly.
As Bruce towelled himself free of the worst of the salt water, the shivering began to abate somewhat. He was still uncomfortable, but knew that would wear off pretty quickly now that he was drier, indoors, and moving.
"How is he?" He stared at the unaccustomed pallor of Kal's face.
"Seriously chilled." Came back the solemn reply, "Are you up to date with the recommended treatment for hypothermia victims?"
"Yes," Bruce nodded, "We need to warm his extremities, but carefully, to avoid the over-chilled blood rushing back to his heart."
"Right," Melly patted as efficiently as she could at the exposed skin, balancing awkwardly on the edge of the sofa, broken leg extended toward the fire that burned merrily in the grate of the old metal range. "I've partly dried his hair, and wiped the worst of the water off his arms and chest, but I'm afraid I'm not exactly making rapid progress…" She looked sheepishly up at Bruce, "There's so much of him, isn't there?"
"Oh yes." Bruce met her eyes and understanding passed between them. "There certainly is."
"You get yourself properly dry." Melly said firmly. "I'll keep working at Kal. You won't be any good to him if you get pneumonia."
Scrubbing the water out of his hair, Bruce could see the sense in that. Now that his extremities were warming he was able to rub himself more vigorously, and removing his sodden trunks under cover of the large bath towel brought an instant improvement.
Dryer, and with a second large towel draped around his shoulders to fend off the worst of the underground chill, Bruce leaned in over his friend. "We need to start warming him up." The pallor of Kal's skin had him worried.
"Now that he's mostly dry, we can put him in my bed." Melly looked up at Bruce. "We're going to have to get his swimming trunks off first though. I say 'we', but since they're still wet they're going to stick all the way, which means it's a job for two working arms, and that disqualifies me. You can rinse them in the sink over there, while I make sure he's properly dry underneath." She pointed toward the far corner.
"If you flush the saltwater off your own trunks at the same time, they can both be hung on the back of that kitchen chair to dry." A gesture made it plain which of the two wooden chairs was being offered.
"You'll have to pick Kal up again and carry him into my room." Melly sighed loudly. "I'm really sorry to be so useless, Bruce."
"I wouldn’t call saving our lives useless." Bruce told her. Gently reaching out he rested one hand on the side of her shoulder. "Even if you didn't have these," He waved at the casts, "Kal's not exactly light."
"True, but normally I could run around and help you by doing the other things."
"And today you can't." He smiled at her. "It doesn't matter and the thought is definitely appreciated."
"But you look near to dropping." Melly worried.
"I'll be fine, Melly. Thanks to you." Bruce gestured at his prone colleague. "Okay, now, this is something I hope Kal is going to forgive me for later…"
Pulling the blanket aside, Bruce eased Kal's swimming trunks down and slid them off over his feet, while he and Melly both made a show of quite deliberately not looking.
"So you're not 'friends with benefits'?" Their hostess asked shyly, once the dastardly deed was done.
Despite his usual bravado, Bruce flushed. "No. We're not."
"Well in that case I'm glad to be wrong." Melly grinned. "Two sexy guys like you, and bundled up in that leather gear, thought you'd be bound to be gay." Her eyes met his. "Although, and I promise not to mention this with him listening, unless I'm way off course the way you look at Kal isn't exactly platonic."
Bruce had to give her full marks for accuracy, and taste. "I'm bi, although I don't know about Kal. But as you've already guessed, I wouldn't exactly refuse if he ever offered." He told her honestly.
"I can appreciate that." Melly smiled fondly. "After all, he is totally gorgeous."
"Yes, he is." Bruce agreed. A grin teased at the edges of his mouth. "But I never said that."
"Of course not. How about we just don’t tell him anything about the last five minutes?" Melly suggested with a chuckle, taking a good one﷓handed grip on the towel and patting at the chilled skin with careful precision, while keeping as much of the blanket over Kal as possible. "That way we can all spare our blushes."
"Fine by me. " Bruce called back, ambling over and rinsing both pairs of trunks under the running water. At least the plumbing in the underground Hall looked reasonably normal, ancient but serviceable.
Alfred would probably feel right at home though… Draping both garments over the back of the chair, Bruce returned to where Melly was waiting.
"I'll lead, you follow." She offered.
Wrapping Kal up in the blanket, Bruce lifted him into his arms and wandered along behind Melly further down the twisting passage.
A few minutes later and they were in a room with the largest four-poster bed Bruce had ever seen. That thing has to be nine feet each way!
"I took this room over because it's got it's own en-suite facilities, which by the way are through that door in the far corner," Melly was explaining, as she hobbled around the side of the bed and drew back the cover. "But even finding sheets to fit this mattress is a job in itself."
"What do you do about laundry?" Bruce asked, intrigued, as he settled Kal onto the firm but pleasantly yielding surface. "And the rest of the domestics?" He tucked the cover over Kal. "I can't exactly see you scrubbing out the bath, or even cleaning dishes, in your current state of health?"
"I have some hired help from the village. They come in twice a week and do whatever is needed. They also fetch the grocery shopping. As there's only one of me, I don’t make much mess."
"When are they due next?"
"Day after tomorrow. It was daily at first, but I felt that was too much." She glanced at Kal and slid a careful hand in under the cover. "Bruce, he's awfully cold…"
"Damn!" Bruce realised that she was right.
With Kal being who he was, while they were escaping in the water, Bruce had assumed that hypothermia would not be a problem - only now he was nowhere near as sure.
And it wouldn't have been, if not for that damned kryptonite! Bruce reminded himself. But whatever the reason, for the moment Kal currently seemed to be very much human and distinctly vulnerable. "Get in the bed with him," He ordered.
"What?" Her eyebrows rose.
"Sharing body heat?" Bruce reminded her. "You were going to have a nap on the sofa, so take it in here instead. Whichever side you're comfortable on, I'll get in the other and we'll sandwich Kal in the middle. Trust me, neither of us is going to be taking advantage of you…"
"Kinky!" Melly grinned. "I really hope he appreciates this! Okay, I have to lie on my right, with the casts down-most, so you take the left side. Can you manage without a pillow, because I need the second one to prop my arm on?"
"Kal can do without." Bruce assessed the situation. "That might even stop me from ending up squashed underneath him if he turns over."
"Is he a lot heavier than you?"
"More than I'd like." Bruce smirked, watching with interest as Melly tugged several strategically concealed strips of Velcro apart and stripped down to her underwear.
"What?" She looked at him. "How did you think it worked?"
"I wondered." Bruce admitted with a smile.
Melly smiled back. "Then wonder no more. It's not easy getting dressed with only one working hand, so the clinic offer a catalogue of easy fasten clothes. They aren't exactly high fashion, but out here who's going to see?"
Bruce said nothing, merely raised an eyebrow.
"Except for two gorgeous lunatics who don't know when not to go swimming …" Melly laughed.
"It wasn't that." Bruce suddenly realised that that was exactly what most people would have assumed if he and Kal had washed up drowned after the storm. "It was Kerris and one of his friends." His brain processed the rest of the previous comment. Melly thought they were both gorgeous? That felt promising…
"Kerris?" Melly stared at him.
"He, and one of his less-charming acquaintances, tried to drag us out to sea and drown us." Bruce told her bluntly.
Understandably, their hostess looked utterly appalled. "Oh god, that’s,"
At that moment Kal coughed weakly, turning slightly. In the faint light, his lips were visibly blue.
Immediately, Melly scrambled awkwardly onto the bed, and lay down as best she could.
Bruce carefully nudged Kal, until the Kryptonian was positioned as closely against Melly's back as possible, then pulled the covers up over them both. "Comfy?"
"Fine." Came the hesitant reply.
"Sure?" Bruce checked.
"It's just …" She sounded very hesitant.
Realising the situation he was putting an almost-total stranger in, Bruce was suddenly concerned. "What?"
"I've never done this before." Melly confessed.
"Me neither." Bruce told her with total honesty, and climbed under the covers with them, spooning himself against Kal's back, and tucking the bedding warmly around them all.
There was a strained silence in the dimly lit room. Over in the wall sconce, a single candle flame flickered. His eyes irresistibly drawn to it, Bruce lay there, watching the wax slowly melt and listening to the sounds of the other two occupants breathing.
"Bruce?" Her voice was loud in the quiet of the room.
"Melly?"
"Is he warming up?"
Bruce was still wondering that too.
"I'm not sure if Kal's any warmer or not," Melly whispered again "and I can't reach back far enough to tell. See what you think?"
"Okay…" He wasn't sure that he should be doing that, but did it anyway. As his questing fingers grazed the skin of Kal's thigh, Bruce gratefully decided that Kal WAS slightly warmer than he had been, he also made another discovery: the flesh under his fingers was perfect, soft and flawless.
So smooth…
His exploring hands slid easily over it, far more effortlessly than they should have, and before he could stop himself Bruce was actively letting them travel.
Oh god, Bruce was more than a little appalled at himself, I shouldn't be doing this. Kal's unconscious and I'm copping a feel… But it felt so damn good.
"Well?"
Bruce realised that Melly was talking to him. What had she asked? Oh, yes … Temperature. "Getting better, I think." He answered.
"Good, then I'm going to try and have my nap now, I've set my alarm in time to get up and start dinner, but if you need anything before that, just reach over and wake me, okay Bruce?"
"Okay."
The sounds of quiet breathing filled the room, and the bed was warm now with shared body heat. Exhausted, Bruce felt his mind beginning to wander, and with the sea-salty aroma rising from Kal and filling his head, he drifted off, not realising that he was practically using the Kryptonian as a pillow.
Bruce woke slowly from the best sleep he'd had in years, literally.
I didn't dream… The absence of his habitual nightmares was a surprise. Then he had another. Somehow in the intervening time, their positions had reversed and now Kal was lying pressed right up against him; his upper arm latched tight around Bruce's waist.
And I'm… Oh god, how awkward. Morning wood, and in the middle of the afternoon no less…
With Kal practically laying on me, and Melly likely to reappear at any second… How DO I get myself into these situations… and WHY…
It took every ounce of Bruce's training not to react outwardly. Slowly he reviewed his options. He could try and slide out from under the arm, but that might wake Kal and could lead to even greater embarrassment. Under other circumstances Bruce might have pretended it wasn't happening, and simply waited for his bed partner to shift position again, before subtly rolling clear.
Or I could just lie here and enjoy it… Now that was a wicked thought! Curiously tempting too.
"Bruce… Kal…" An amused feminine voice cut through the still air. "Hey there, sleepy heads… Coffee!" Melly limped around the end of the bed pulling a small trolley behind her. On the top shelf were a huge thermos flask, three mugs and a carton of milk.
"Mmmm." Bruce decided that this wasn’t such a bad way to be woken up after all. That reminded him. "Kal?" The sculptured form remained relaxed under his fingers as Bruce stroked one hand gently along his friend's shoulder: there was no way he wanted to find out what would happen if Kal were to be startled into wakefulness.
"Kal? Coffee?" He whispered. Kal simply sighed and nestled back against him. Bruce couldn’t help but grin as nearly three hundred pounds of pure muscle… snuggled.
"No joy?" Melly guessed.
"Not yet." Sliding around, Bruce leant over and slid a pillow into place behind Melly as she settled gingerly down onto his side of the massive bed.
"Thanks!" She smiled. "There are cookies on the lower rack, if you want some?"
"Not a cookie person," Bruce smiled back, "But definitely a coffee person… thanks. You really are a lifesaver!" He thoroughly enjoyed the blush that spread over her face.
"How's our boy?" She wondered.
"Nice and warm again," Bruce told her.
"Aw, he looks so cute." Melly gazed affectionately at the sleeping figure.
"Cute?" He considered that and found himself agreeing with her, even if he might not have phrased it quite that way. Or even said it aloud…
"Definitely." Melly wasn't in the least bit embarrassed about voicing her opinion. "And beautiful. Oh look…"
Bruce looked, seeing nothing amiss.
"Kal's got a kiss curl…" Melly noticed. "Just like the one Superman has in all those news photo's…"
Oh shit! Was she going to go on to make the rest of the connection? What would he do, what COULD he do, if she did? He wasn’t about to blatantly lie to someone who had saved his life.
Reaching out, Melly stroked her fingers through Kal's tousled locks, untangling them. Kal didn’t seem to mind the attention, he simply pressed his face against Bruce's ribs and slept on.
"His hair's so soft." Melly whispered admiringly. "I wondered what it would feel like to touch." She seemed to notice Bruce's unease. "You okay? You look tense?"
"I'm fine." Bruce managed to say. He gratefully downed a long swig of coffee and forced himself to at least LOOK relaxed. "Just not used to sharing a bed under these circumstances."
"Ah." With her cast propped along the mattress and her uninjured leg dangling comfortably off the side of the bed, Melly leant back against the pillows and sipped her own coffee. "Me neither." She smiled softly. "Not that I minded. Actually it was rather nice to wake up and have someone here. So, Bruce, did you sleep well?"
"I did as a matter of fact." At least he didn't have to hedge around that one …
"Kal looks as if he's enjoying himself…" Melly gave a wry grin. "He's one of life's natural cuddlers, isn’t he?"
Bruce glanced down at the muscular arm that had somehow ended up wrapped around his waist. "Seems that way." He agreed. Something occurred to him. "I wonder?"
"What?"
"You said you'd brought cookies?" He glanced at their hostess.
"Yes – hold onto me and I'll reach down to the lower shelf on the trolley," Melly offered. "There's a plate of them there."
"Ah." Obligingly Bruce wrapped a gentlemanly arm around her waist as Melly leant down and fetched up what she was searching for. "Got them." She held them out to him with a smile. "You changed your mind quickly. I thought you didn’t want any?"
"They're not for me." Bruce directed a meaningful glance at the beautiful body currently wrapped tightly around his lower torso. "They're for the cookie monster."
"Oh." Melly grinned in sudden understanding.
"C'mon Kal, time to wake up, buddy…" Bruce grinned back, waving the plate to and fro just above his friend's nose. "We've got cookies …"
"Hmmm?" A long ripple went through the solidly muscled form. The entire bed rocked slightly as Kal shifted. "Mmm? Was I floating?" He mumbled, eyes still shut.
"No, you weren't floating, Kal. We're out of the water now." Bruce said quickly, to head off any odd questions. Lightly he stroked the broad shoulder and tried again. "Kal, cookies?"
"Cookies?" Opening sleepy eyes, Kal glanced up at him. "Bruce?"
For a moment Bruce worried exactly how Kal was going to take this? After all, a lot of people would be more than a little upset if they woke and found themselves entirely naked and lying draped in intimate proximity to a close male friend without having offered any prior invitation.
Of course most of the population can't fire lethal blasts from their eyes, or crush steel with their bare hands… Bare hands that just happened to be in very close contact with unprotected human ribs at that moment.
Having Superman angry with him was not something that Bruce wanted to experience, not at any time, but most especially not when they were both naked.
"Did you say 'cookies'?" Kal wondered, yawning and unwrapping himself from Bruce as he rolled easily over onto his back, appropriating at least half of Bruce's portion of the bed covers in the process. Finally he seemed to notice that they were not alone. "Oh, hi Melly." He gave their hostess a shy smile.
"Hi Kal. How are you feeling?"
"Peckish," Kal admitted.
"Then I'll exchange you a plate of cookies for a bit more blanket?" Bruce offered, casting a wary eye over the current position of the sheets. The trailing edge had already cleared his left knee and thigh, and was currently inching away from parts that Bruce felt unready to expose to public scrutiny at that, or any other, moment.
"Sure." As he sat up, Kal obligingly freed up the slack from the bunch of covers that had ended up wrapped around him. Taking the plate from Bruce, he nibbled on a cookie and looked around. "Bruce, where exactly are we?"
"Now he asks." Bruce laughed. He had wondered how long it would take before curiosity struck. "We're in Melly's bed, in the caves."
"We are? How'd we get here?"
"Melly hauled the pair of us out of the bay." Bruce told his friend.
"Oh." Kal nodded as if that sort of thing happened to him all the time.
Maybe it does? Casting a sideways look at his bedmate, Bruce could see exactly why someone might want to occupy a bed with Superman. He also realised that despite the number of years he had known Kal, he actually had very little idea of what Kal did in his off-duty time, let alone in the pursuit of pleasure… Apart from munch the occasional cookie…
"Enjoying those?" Melly smiled at the rapidly emptying plate.
"Uh," A crease of concern appeared on Kal's face. "Sorry… Did you want one?" He politely held the half-empty plate in her direction.
Melly laughed aloud. "No." She patted his hand. "You finish them. I've got to go and check on dinner." Grinning, she looked at Kal. "Don't leave any crumbs in the bed though."
"Okay." Kal agreed readily.
Judging by the way the things were vanishing that wasn’t going to be a problem.
As the sound of Melly's measured progress disappeared along the passageway, Kal turned to Bruce. "What happened?" He asked softly.
"You discovered a localised pocket of green mineral rock." Bruce told him carefully. "The hard way."
"And you …"
"Had to drag your soggy butt all the way to shore." Bruce said, trying to make light of it, and realising that it wasn't going to work. Not with Kal.
His friend stared at him aghast. "I could have killed you." Kal whispered. "Just because of who, of what, I am…"
Having Kal throw a personal pity party was not something that Bruce was prepared to tolerate at that moment, if ever. "How do you figure that?" He demanded.
"I know how hard it is to shift something of my mass, and how cold and tired you already were," Kal's voice was haunted. "We could have both drowned."
"And if you remember, I wouldn't have made it out of that net alive if it hadn't been for you? Which was down largely to me being built the way I am." Bruce reminded him. "We're both here, alive. Personally, I think we're even." He had a sudden thought. Nothing like a diversion! "Are you invulnerable again?" He whispered.
"Invulnerable?" Kal blinked at him, "I don't know? Depends on how long the exposure was for, and how long it's been since you got me away from it." He looked at Bruce with wide, innocent eyes. "Why?"
"Oh, just wondering." Surreptitiously Bruce reached under the covers and quickly pinched Kal on the butt.
"Ouch! Hey that stings!" Kal protested.
"Not yet then?" Bruce grinned, getting in another tweak, as he quickly slid out from under the sheets before Kal could decide on somewhere safe to leave the plate.
Knowing that Kal would never willingly break anything, and that he was therefore temporarily safe from retaliation, and doubly so if Kal's abilities had not yet returned, Bruce indulged himself a little further. Snagging the sheet, he yanked it off Kal in one sudden move, like a magician extracting the tablecloth from under the place settings.
"Hey!" His larger companion made a token protest. "That was mean!" Hurriedly snatching at the retreating covers, Kal managed to retain hold of one of the blankets. "Where are you going with that sheet?" Sitting in the middle of the pile of crumpled blanket he looked uncharacteristically bewildered, and also quite adorable. "What am I supposed to do without it?"
"Use the blanket? Sorry buddy, I can't lie there and let you snuggle me for the rest of the evening!" Bruce told him smugly, "No matter how much you want me to."
"Snuggle?" Kal spluttered. "I don't… We didn't…"
"You do, and we did." Bruce told him triumphantly. "And I have a witness to that fact…"
"No!" Kal's eyes got wider. He looked up at Bruce. "Really?"
"You were very reluctant to let me go." Mercilessly, Bruce pressed his advantage. "In fact, we had to bribe you with cookies…" He continued.
Kal stared over at the nearly empty plate with horror. "Oh…" The perfect recall was obviously kicking in.
But will the rest of the Big Blue Boy Scout's powers come back before, or after, the invulnerability? Taking firm hold of his prize, Bruce wrapped himself in the sheet like Caesar in a toga, and exited in triumph, before Kal rediscovered both his composure and his heat vision.
He's too moral and way too careful to chance doing anything freaky to me while we're with Melly anyway… Which means that, if that storm's still around out there, this evening should be good for a bit more Kal-baiting… Might even turn out to have been worth getting half-drowned and half-frozen getting here.
Well, that was the night's entertainment laid on, wasn’t it? Food was already in the offing. The only thing really lacking now was clothing… The air down here was cool enough to discourage casual nudity.
So, let's see what else this place has to offer? Since I'm funding it… Grinning to himself, Bruce went in search of essentials.
tbc…
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Road Trip