Work Text:
“Well, now that you're officially part of the Gang, we gotta get to know each other,” Guy said one day, chewing on a glazed donut. He didn't sound very enthusiastic about the idea, though. He just put it out there as some kind of protocol.
Rex sat there stiffly, fuming from his ears anxiously. Guy grabbed another donut without breaking eye contact.
“Um. Well, you all know my real name is Rex Mason. I was an adventurer working for Simon Stagg before I encountered a meteorite that—”
“Nah, nah,” Guy cut him off with a lazy wave of his hand. “We already know about your superhero backstory, alright?”
“Guy means stuff like hobbies, favorite foods, music tastes,” said Kendra, who was sprawled upside down on the couch, her wings comfortably taking up most of the space. She was reading a magazine, but she seemed to only be looking at the pictures.
“Oh,” Rex’s cheeks became a faint red, a bright substance swirling under them. “Well… I haven't had time to think about that.”
“You what? You mean you don't listen to music?” Guy gawked like Rex had just confessed to murder.
Rex just shrugged. “I guess not, no.”
He looked at Kendra. “We hired a psychopath.”
“You were the one who told him he was in, jackass.” she corrected.
She then looked at Rex apologetically. “Not that I don't want you here, Rex. You're a cool guy.”
Rex looked a bit lost. “It's just, with all the… being-a-freak-and-a-dad situation, I haven't found time for myself or to discover new things,” he explained hopelessly. “I’m a stay-at-home dad, if that wasn't obvious. Sapphire’s the one that doesn't look like a bald Frankenstein's monster, so…”
“I mean, I can't picture you with hair if that helps. Maybe it was an improvement.” said Guy, doing a vague hand gesture.
“I had alopecia before my transformation.”
“Oh.”
There was a brief silence in which Guy kept chewing exaggeratedly.
“You three should go on a walk and help Rex find something to like again,” said Holt’s voice from behind them.
He was holding one of his T-spheres in his left hand, inspecting some kind of code in it, while the right typed carelessly on his keyboard. The monitor made a beep sound before he turned around. “Your nonsensical bickering doesn't let me focus.”
**
“People are looking at me,” Rex said, trying to hide between Kendra and Guy.
“They have eyes, you dumbass, what do you want them to do?” Guy replied.
“Maybe they're looking at Guy’s horrible hair,” said Kendra, putting a hand on Rex’s shoulder. “Relax, Rex. I promise you look fine.”
“I look stupid,” he said, and he didn't exactly mean his body. He was gesturing to his clothes.
Mr. Terrific had engineered some new uniforms for all of them, and Rex had requested some… modesty in his, given he wanted to move on from the shorts-only look.
The result was a sleeveless top with long pants and padded boots. Holt had assured him the textile material was created to shift with him when he was using his abilities, regenerating to his base form when Rex himself did (something about chemically-bonded nanobots that Rex didn't understand completely) but the Element Man didn't go outside much, so he hadn't had the opportunity to test that.
The boots were mainly for appearances, because Rex had just recently come to the realization that he was the only freak going around Metropolis barefoot and he really didn't want more attention on his person.
“What do you want to do first?” Kendra asked suddenly, interrupting his thoughts.
“I told you, I don't have any interests right now. I don't do anything in my free time.”
“We'll start with the aquarium, then. Everyone likes animals.” Kendra decided, marching with confidence across the crowded streets.
“Um, yeah, I sure do.” Rex said, following Kendra and Guy.
**
Once they were at the entrance, Rex was having second thoughts.
“Is it normally this crowded?” he asked, seemingly frozen at the door. His shoulders felt very tight all of the sudden. His instincts were yelling at him to go go go.
“Well, can't say I go here much,” said Guy. He squinted at the posters by the waiting line. “Hey, there's sea lions.”
When they had acquired their tickets —which Guy had insisted on paying but seemed genuinely offended when the worker took the money from him—, they decided to enter the guide-less route, for Rex's sake.
The first stop was a long tank with a large number of exotic fish species from all parts of South America. Rex squinted at the labels with genuine curiosity while Kendra pulled faces to scare them off. Guy muttered something about his knees and went to sit on a bench nearby while they looked at the fish.
They kept walking across a clear underwater tunnel which let them see small sharks swimming on top of them. Rex seemed mesmerized, and with a nod from Guy, Kendra snapped a picture.
“That was amazing.” Rex muttered once they had reached the end of the tunnel.
“Wait till you see the sea lions!”
“Is that the only part you read of the pamphlets?” asked Kendra.
“Well, I like sea lions.” Guy explained with a shrug, opening the doors to the next stop.
Rex followed him, his boots padding softly against the carpeted floor.
The sea lions weren't all that exciting, in Kendra's opinion, since most of them were sunbathing.
But either way, Rex’s eyes followed every movement, every grunt and slap the animals made. He found the way they lazily rolled around to keep resting simply fantastic. Guy nudged Kendra with his elbow, and she took another picture.
After some more fish watching and a trip to the gift shop, the three members of the Justice Gang exited the aquarium. Rex was holding a shark figurine in his palm, something small and made of plastic, though the paint job was realistic enough. Kendra had bought a tote bag with the logo of the aquarium and Guy… Guy was carrying a huge sea lion toy in his arms like it was his baby.
“That… was fun.” Rex said. His flat tone seemed to indicate the contrary, but his body language had relaxed considerably since the beginning of the visit.
“We should visit the Metropolis Museum tomorrow. They have a new archeological expo prepared… Fossils, prehistoric stuff.” Kendra said, reading from her phone, clearly not familiarized with the topic.
“I used to like dinosaurs as a kid.” said Rex distractedly.
“Then it's settled!” Guy slapped a free hand against Rex’s back a bit too hard. Rex didn’t react, but he clutched the shark toy harder.
“We should really look into some music for you, though,” he continued with a know-it-all tone. “Before you start thinking the Mighty Crabjoys are an actual punk band.”
A blur of blue and red flew across the sky, and Guy almost jumped out of his shoes.
Rex watched the streak of color disappear into the clouds and wondered, for the first time in a while, if things might actually turn out okay.