#why am i only capable of publishing a prompt at like.. 1-3am

[owl-with-a-pen]

there have been so many set pictures of green Brainy recently that I'm starting to wonder if that could be a semi-permanent thing? (which I'm not complaining about, Jesse looks great always) so how about something where Brainy decides to live without the image inducer and Kara and Nia are supportive of him

I've had an idea for this on my mind for ages and as the show's explanation has been so far a tad disappointing, here's my take 😉

“See anything?”

Nia jerked her chin from her upturned fist where she’d nearly nodded off. She blinked groggily, rubbing at her eyes as she tried to re-focus on the radar in front of her. The technology had been a dual effort on J’onn and Brainy's part, designed to flag any threats with peculiar energy signatures. Metas, alien super powers, fifth dimensional magic - if it was out of the ordinary, chances were this thing would find them.

Nia cleared her throat, trying desperately to come across as astute instead of asleep. She ran her index finger across the radar’s most recent readings output. “According to this, I think we’re in the clear.” She rolled backwards in her chair, only to be met by the jarring resistance of Kara’s leg a moment later. Nia tipped her head up to meet her friend, fixing her with an exhausted pout. “Although, I bet I could do a wider search from the dreamscape,” she said, fluttering her lashes. “Just five minutes?”

Kara’s lips crumpled into a smile at that. She snorted, patting Nia’s shoulder sympathetically. “Something tells me if I let you do that, I won’t be able to wake you up again.”

Nia glared at her in affront. “Hey! It’s not my fault I don’t have a superhuman alcohol tolerance.” She rolled her eyes. “Unlike some people.”

Kara scoffed. “No one asked you to drink that much on a work night.”

Nia twisted in her seat accusingly. “Two words. Penalty. Shots.” She screwed her eyes shut, pressing her head miserably into the chair’s backrest. “Lena knew that the object of the game was to avoid those shots, right?”

“Lena does love a competition,” Kara mused, folding her arms. She shifted awkwardly. “But, uh, there is one thing she loves a little more.”

“Scotch,” Nia chimed in at the exact same moment as Kara, earning another sympathetic wince from the Kryptonian.

Nia only groaned, wheeling herself back towards the sweet horizontal comfort of the Tower’s computer desk. It’d been a long time since she’d had a hangover this bad. Sure, she’d gone to work in some pretty sorry states in the past, but turning up at the Tower like this? This was a first she had absolutely no intention of repeating.

Honestly, if she hadn't been the only Super Friend Kara had been able to get a hold of that morning, she’d still be in bed right now.

Nia ducked her head into her folded arms, relaxing into the inviting coolness that the varnished wood provided. “I can feel you gloating from here, y’know,” she mumbled.

Kara spluttered. “I’m not gloating!”

“Please. You know if Brainy had been there, we would’ve wiped the floor with you.”

“Hey, no – no way.” Kara laughed dismissively. “Danvers Sisters was ahead on the board last week!” Then, under her breath, she added, “And we still are.”

Nia raised her head, ignoring the alarming sensation that the world had tipped suddenly onto its side. “See? Gloating!”

Before Kara could try and defend herself, she stopped short, falling totally silent. When Nia turned to her in question, she found that Kara appeared to be listening to something intently, her head half inclined towards the elevator doors.

When those doors began to pull open, Nia understood why.

Inside the elevator stood Brainy, hands raised awkwardly towards his chest. He fiddled listlessly with his ring, seemingly unaware that the elevator had since reached its destination.

Nia’s stomach sank.

She hadn’t seen Brainy since he’d told her he wouldn’t be able to make game night the day before. Sure, there’d been coffee and a breakfast burrito waiting for her come morning, but Brainy had been and gone long before Nia had woken that morning.

Although Brainy was generally far earlier to rise than Nia, since leaving the DEO, he’d had the luxury of spending most of his mornings with her before they headed out to the Tower together. Sometimes, he’d even walk her to work or, if she was running particularly late, fly her.

He was anxious about something, that much was clear, and from the windswept nature of his dark hair, Nia figured he’d taken to the skies in an effort to clear his head. Although, as he continued to stand there, massaging his ring finger in vexed silence, she knew that it had done little to help. Whatever thoughts he was harbouring, they were obviously weighing pretty heavily on his shoulders.

It was just, it didn’t make sense. Brainy had told her that he’d been with J’onn last night, helping with some repairs to the Tower’s cloaking mechanism. Usually, tinkering with tech was cathartic for her boyfriend and so unless the repairs had gone catastrophically wrong, Nia couldn’t understand what could have happened between yesterday afternoon and now to put Brainy into this sort of a headspace.

But she was going to find out.

“Hey Brainy,” Kara said, in a gentle tone that suggested she’d also noticed Brainy’s skittish hesitancy, “we were just talking about how much we missed you at game night.”

Brainy stiffened, for the first time noticing that he was no longer alone. He offered them both an apologetic smile before striding forward, keeping his eyes trained towards the ground. “Yes, about that,” he muttered, wringing his hands together. “I have a confession to make.”

Hangover all but forgotten, Nia quickly stood from her chair, joining Kara at her side. She shared a look of concern with her before clearing her throat. “What’s up?”

Brainy grimaced. “Yesterday,” he began, tapping his ring thoughtlessly against the palm of his open hand, “when I said I couldn’t come to game night because I was helping J’onn at the Tower. That was not entirely... accurate.”

“Oh?” Kara frowned. “You weren’t with J’onn?”

“Oh no, I was,” Brainy said quickly. He bit his lip. “We were just… elsewhere.”

“You know you can tell us anything,” Nia said seriously, taking a half step forward. She knew better than anyone not to crowd Brainy when he was nervous, but that didn’t make it any easier to tame the gut instinct to go to him the second he so much as looked uncomfortable. “No more secrets, remember?” she prompted instead, catching his eye however briefly. “Wherever you were—”

Brainy folded his arms across his chest restlessly. “I-” He gritted his teeth, closing his eyes. “J’onn invited me to one of his group meetings, with his alien friends who had decided to relinquish the use of their image inducers.” When he opened his eyes, they were shimmering with moisture. “Since coming to this century, I have tried to blend in. At first, I thought of it as an act of consideration for those around me. Humans who may have felt uncomfortable seeing an alien in their true visage when the concept is still so new to this time period.” He motioned towards his face unthinkingly before his lips thinned into a fine, distasteful line. “Now, I recognise many of those humans harbour negative feelings for anyone that is different from them.”

“You’re preaching to the choir,” Nia said with a half-smile. “And I understand why you felt like you needed to keep wearing it, but that shouldn’t be a choice others make for you. It should be yours.”

“Is that what you wanted to talk about?” Kara asked softly.

Brainy’s head shot up at that. He looked between them both, straightening his back. “I-I wanted you to be the first to know,” he admitted. “From today, I no longer wish to live under the pretences of the image inducer’s illusion. I want people to see me for who I am.” He smirked, shaking his head. “I have felt so uncertain of myself for so long, and perhaps it was easier to hide behind the inducer when I had been inhibited… but I am proud of what I have achieved to reach this point, I do not want to disguise that.”

“And you shouldn’t,” Nia said immediately, taking an impulsive step forward. “We support you, Brainy.”

“One hundred per cent,” Kara agreed.

Brainy nodded, sucking in a deep breath as he reached a hand towards the side of his face, pinching the small disk of his image inducer between finger and thumb. The moment it was released, his human appearance washed away like a gentle tide, replaced instead with vibrant emerald skin and white blond hair as fine as freshly spun gold.

For a long moment, Nia forgot how to breathe.

He was beautiful, so beautiful, and as often as Brainy had shown her the same sentiment through poetry highlighting every aspect of her beauty both in the physical and the abstract, Nia had never been quite as eloquent with her own words.

Maybe it didn’t matter, because she was certain her expression gave her away. Even if it didn’t, the way she stumbled towards him seconds later certainly did. She stopped just short of bumping into him, so close that she could feel the heat of him against her skin. She lifted her hand, relaying with her eyes exactly what she wanted to do. Brainy nodded minutely, lowering his head so that she could run her fingers along the side of his jaw, cupping his chin against the palm of her hand. Brainy’s dark eyes held her steadily now, no longer skittish, but instead static in the moment, seeing nothing but her.

“There you are,” she breathed, brushing her lips gently against his as she linked her free hand through his green fingers, squeezing tight. Her heart fluttered when Brainy returned the kiss just as enthusiastically, taking her arm with his other hand.

When they finally broke apart, Nia made extra care to run her fingers through Brainy’s golden locks before withdrawing her hand. Seeing the smile that lit up Brainy’s face in response only made her grin all the wider. She could have stayed there looking at him all day...

But, this wasn’t just a moment for the two of them to share.

As Nia stepped away, she saw Kara come forward in her peripheral, hands folded respectfully in front of her.

“Brainy,” Kara said, her voice choked with emotion. “I am so proud of you.”

Any residual tension Brainy had been holding seemed to unspool the moment Kara spoke. “You are?”

“Of course!” Kara beamed, taking his arms. When Brainy showed no resistance, she went in for the full hug, wrapping her arms tightly around his back. Brainy settled into the embrace almost immediately, huffing out a soft sigh into Kara’s hair.

Hangover well and truly forgotten, Nia found a spot for herself in the hug, tucking her face into Brainy’s shoulder. Brainy welcomed the contact, closing his eyes as he totally relaxed into the group hug.

Brainy had overcome a lot to be here, and not just to appear as he was, but to be in this century entirely. Nia knew Brainy’s introduction to this time had been far from smooth, and even though she’d done everything to make him feel settled, the constant use of his inducer even at home only served as a reminder that he hadn’t found total peace here yet.

Nia had had the fortune of being openly encouraged to live as her true self, and more recently Kara had taught her the importance of embracing her alien heritage as well. But the face Brainy wore now was new not just to the 21st century, but the 31st as well, and just like Kara, she was so incredibly happy that Brainy had found the courage through J’onn’s help to remove his inducer for good.

She knew it’d be a bumpy ride, but she didn’t care. No matter what, she was with him. No matter what, she loved him. And – when he was ready – the whole family he’d made here would stand just as proudly by his side, too.