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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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Published:
2020-11-05
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733
Chapters:
1/1
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19
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1,623

Birthday Surprises

Summary:

Lyle’s got a present for Brainy. It isn’t for a winter holiday, however.

Work Text:

Birthday Surprises 

 

After four years spent in the Legion of Super-Heroes, Brainiac 5 was not unaccustomed to receiving presents from various members of said team at the end of the Earth calendar year. Normally, however, they were accompanied by a cheery ‘Happy Holidays!’ a simple ‘Seasons’ Greetings!’ or the ever-popular and mostly-human traditional ‘Merry Christmas’. Once, long ago, Leviathan had wished him a ‘Happy Hanukah’.

 

While Querl had never known that Gim Allon was Jewish, he had also never received a present from Lyle Norg in person. And Invisible Kid had certainly never said, “Happy birthday, Brainy,” to him before, whilst presenting him with said gift. Querl was certain he would have remembered.

 

“How did you–?” Querl started to ask, more confused than he normally allowed himself to appear.

 

Lyle shrugged and looked discomfited, eyes focused on the gaily-wrapped box clutched in Brainy’s hands. “After the whole…thing…with…with your mother, I took a deeper look into your file.”

 

Hunching in on himself ever-so-slightly, hands clenching spasmodically on the present, Brainy said, “Ah.” It wasn’t a time in his life he liked to remember; his mother trying to kill him was only slightly more horrific than spending the ‘Most wonderful time of the year’ – as that one song said – remembering how his mother hadn’t wanted him was depressing.

 

“Open it,” Lyle encouraged quietly.

 

And Querl, unable to conscience the fact that it could make him feel worse, did so.

 

At first glance, the small object lying on the crumpled red paper and green bow would appear to be a simple data cube. Brainiac 5, knowing there had to be more to it, activated the cube, and stared, awed. Pictures of his teammates, both candid and posed, flashed across the sides of the cube in five-second intervals, just long enough for him to get a good look at them. He only needed a minute to be surprised at how often people had taken pictures of him, and of how often he appeared to be happy in those pictures.

 

“Thank you,” Querl offered quietly, sincerely touched, both by the gift itself, and by what it meant – Lyle considered him more than a teammate.

 

Actually, going by the pictures, so did quite a few of his other…colleagues. His friends, he supposed; the thought made him feel oddly warm inside, as impossible as such biofeedback was.

 

“You’re welcome,” Lyle responded, voice equally as soft.

 

It was only when the cube flashed a picture of the two of them, heads bent over some project, that Brainy felt confident enough to broach the subject. “I’m sorry I missed your birthday,” he said, knowing the other boy’s had been six weeks previous. Birthdays were only important to Coluans in that they marked the passage of time. They weren’t celebrated at all.

 

Querl had never before bothered to think that by following his own species’ traditions, he’d been ignoring Lyle’s…and, quite possibly, hurting him in some way, however small and unmeant.

 

“That’s alright,” Lyle said magnanimously, with a small shrug of his shoulders. He grinned slightly. “You can get me something for New Year’s’.”

 

Frowning at his friend, knowing that the New Year was, according to the EarthGov calendar, just two days away, Querl asked, “How am I supposed to find something appropriate on such short notice?” He wasn’t good with emotional things, and a present that would be such an emotional equivalent of Lyle’s gift to him would take him a great deal of time to think of. At least a week, probably two, possibly even a month.

 

Why couldn’t Lyle have said Valentine’s Day?

 

Lyle’s grin widened, a suspicious sparkle lighting his eyes. Brainy heard warning klaxons go off in his head. “Oh, you don’t need to. I already know what I want.”

 

Despite his former happiness, Querl now found himself wary. Trepidation rampaging through his heart, Brainy nonetheless spat out a terse, “What?”

 

Leaning close enough until they were breathing in each other’s exhalations, Lyle whispered, “Mistletoe.”

 

It was in that moment that Querl realized exactly what Lyle had been saying with his gift. Also, the unfortunate fact that he would still have to find Lyle a gift for Valentine’s Day.

 

Querl responded accordingly – by kissing Lyle, and deciding to just get him several pounds of Bgzltian chocolates. He now had better things to do with his spare time than think of gifts to give.