Disclaimer: I don't own Legion Of Superheroes and I'm not a writer. I apologize to the world.

It had never look very hard. It really hadn't. Go in, save the girl. How hard could that be? Brin used to think that being a superhero would be worth all the issues that the adults said that they had. His father used to tell him that being a Hero to the people was the best thing a person could be.

Back then he used to believe him, back then he used to love him. Back then… well, back then, he was stupid.

~*~*~*

Timberwolf let out a savage growl as he ripped through the bars that held back the prisoners, it wasn't nearly as sturdy as it looked, and then jumped back into battle. Vaguely he wondered why none of the people they put away, stayed away. All putting them in jail seemed to do was give them a chance to form new alliances…

Or buy MASSIVE GUNS… shit.

He distinctly heard Lighting Lad repeat the curse as he ducked and took cover.

"WHY do the bad guys always have better weapons then us?" Chameleon boys grumbled, and Timberwolf couldn't help but crack a grin.

"NOT NOW Cham." Brainy retorted, but you could tell from the look on his face he was trying to figure that question out. Brainy can be a bit weird. For example, even though he has a twelfth level intellect, the little guy packs a ridiculous number of guns and half of them do the same thing. Whatever… As long as he's aiming at the bad guys.

It was with those thoughts that he saw it. Well, more specifically he heard it, but ears are practically better then eyes sometimes.

Metal scrapping against metal, the patter of feet, the tell-tale scream. The Hostages had entered from the other side of the room. The scuff of a shoe on the floor and then the ear-piercing scream of a little girl. He was up and running before he even had a chance to think about how stupid this is.

He wasn't bulletproof. He wasn't superiorly intelligence. He was just strong, and furry. Some hero. But then again, there wasn't time for thoughts; there was only time for duck, roll, punch, and attack. He sometimes wondered if he even needed to breathe to fight, and then realized daddy dearest probably took care of that too.

The enemies were firing round after round but none of them hit. He wondered if it was that he was too fast for them or if they just had really bad aim. He actually laughed out loud at that thought. One) because it would piss off the guys firing at him and two) because even though Brin hated hated hated it, there was a sort of thrill he could only get from fighting.

Eventually, the bad guys get tired of aiming for something they can't hit; so they aim for something they can.

There is this little girl among the hostage's. Blond haired, blue eyed, the poster child for the innocents. And as the guns turn towards her, Timberwolf doesn't even think before throwing himself in front of her. A single bullet collides into his knee as he stumbles forward and crumples. One single bullet

For a second, there is nothing; then mind numbing pain.

Timberwolf will always hate his father for making him this strong monster.

(But sometimes he hates his father for not making him stronger)

------

Kell-el is the first person to see it, which is unsurprising because as superman's clone he has like 20 different kinds of vision.

But he's not the first person to move. Oh, he's the first person to get there, but he's not the first person to move.

He freeze's, for the first time in battle since he was 6, half expecting the bullet to glance right off of him. It's just that Timberwolf is (was?) so strong. Like no one else in the league but Kell. Lightning Lad was powerful, but he didn't possess the sheer physical strength to match Kell or Timberwolf. And Kell trained with Timberwolf often, at first because he was the only one who could even land a punch on him, and then because it was routine, comfortable. Kell would even venture to say he enjoyed it. Sparring with someone who understood you and could match you, sparring with someone who had overtime become more then a coworker, but maybe even a friend.

So when he watches Timberwolf throw himself in front of some child (stupid stupid) he freezes, and his heart clenches painfully as he watches Timberwolf hit the floor. And he wants to yell at Timberwolf for not being bulletproof, for having gotten hurt, for not just letting the girl die, which he knows is insane. (he hates himself for a second for even considering that but he can't help it)

And as some un-named un-known stupid piece of shit cocks his gun and aims it at Timberwolf's face, Kell tries to imagine what life would be like without him

Without someone to spar with

Or to someone who understands his weird jaded humor

Or someone who secretly bakes cookies that they can eat together at midnight

Or someone who sneaks out of the tower with him and introduced him to this centuries life

Or someone who just gets him. And doesn't ask pesky questions about the past.

Someone who-

But he can't even finish that thought, because it hurts way too much, more then he thinks it should, or that it even could.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees lightning lad start running towards Timberwolf (idiot, there is no way you'll make it in time) and it jolts Kell back into motion. He just wasted 2 seconds thinking about what life would be like without him that he hasn't moved to save him.

He's there before the third second had even begun to consider passing, staring down this unnamed man, breaking the gun in his hand. He considers killing the bastard. The fucking imbecile who even tried to touch him, but he refrains. He's a hero now, not a solider. And gods how he wished he wasn't.

He scoops Timberwolf up, surprised by how light he is, and Timberwolf's claws dig into his arm as if trying to remind Kell that he is not a fragile damsel in distress, or perhaps its just a reaction to how much pain he is in? Kell doesn't know and he doesn't care.

Lightning Lad is yelling something, but Kell's brain doesn't even register it.

He doesn't register the bullets that are ricocheting of his back, or how the young girl runs to safety, or Saturn girl disarming the last of the bombs. But he does notice Timberwolf pass out.

So he runs away, turn's his back on a battle for the first time in his life, and concentrates on getting Timberwolf somewhere safe. Somewhere where they can save him. He has to keep reminding himself that he is alive, and breathing and it's okay, he's alive. Oh god he's alive. He can't die, he CANT die. I… I'd… focus Kell. He's alive.

(He doesn't want to admit it; he can't stand losing him)

~*~*~

Timberwolf opens his eyes and is greeted by white.

White, colorless walls and white sheets and white pillows and silver shackles. Binding him to the table. He remembers a time when he didn't need them, when he willingly went into whatever experiment that his father wanted, because he loved him. And a part of him still loves him, and that only makes the hate that much stronger.

He whispers a small "no" as he realizes where he is. In some lab, chained to a table, just waiting for his father to walk in and do god only knows what.

No. never again.

So he fights, trying to break the chains that are holding him down but he can't. So he lies there thrashing, miserable.

Was it all a dream?

Did he really never escape? The legion? His friends? Kell? Were they all just a figment of his imagination?

It wouldn't be the first time he's dreamed up worlds where he's escaped, where his father could never touch him again.

But it had felt so real. He was safe, he…

Kell. Kell was real. Figments of your imagination don't know that you secretly love to cook or that your favorite color is green even though your uniform is orange. And they don't work out with you at 3 in the morning because they get what it's like to be restless. And they don't just understand instead of asking questions.

Kell had to be real. It hurts too much if he wasn't.

But somewhere inside, Timberwolf can't seem to forget that he's in that white room with the silver shackles and he shakes and screams and tries as hard as he can to escape (again? He doesn't know).

~%~%~%~

Kell sits and watches, and watches, and watches and if the other members of the legion notice that he doesn't leave Timberwolf's side, they don't comment on it.

Lightning Lad paces and paces. He grows tenser by every passing moment. But the legion goes on and so does he. He lets Kell have his vigil because he knows that he wouldn't ever want to leave Saturn girls side if he was in a similar situation. (He tries hard to forget the coma she was in once, and the downward spiral it sent him on)

So, when Saturn Girl stands up with a stricken look on her face and whispers a small pathetic

"Oh god, Brin!" He gets to his room before her. Lightning Lad is Timberwolf's friend, as is the rest of the core legion. And he is painfully aware that the legion is Brin's only friends. He's not perfect all the time, but he knows that he is one of Timberwolf's closest friends. So, when he arrives to the room and sees Kell staring through the one-way glass with a tight expression he gets a little scared. He hates that wall, which from one way looks white and one way allows you to see through. He thinks that the wall should be reversed so that the patient can see out and those waiting can stare at whitewall. Just a blank white room. Because watching Timberwolf thrash about… well, it sucks.

So, he watches, as Timberwolf breaks free of the shackles holding him and rips into the room. Destroying anything he can get his hands on. And he watches as the animalistic fury calms down and leaves Timberwolf, no Brin, standing in the middle of the room desolate and alone in the middle of the room for a couple of seconds before the fury returns and Timberwolf breaks the metal bed in half with one punch.

~*~*

You stupid idiot, they were fake, they were LIES. You're pathetic, so pathetic. And alone. He thinks, and then he lets his anger take over so he doesn't have to think. His anger at being let down, at being so foolish, at the fucking crappy cards he was dealt in life, and how it was kinda all his fault. So he turns around and punches something because it almost makes his heart hurt less.

(He feels even more stupid when he realizes he may have had a crush on a figment of his own imagination)

----

He watches him punch that bed, and suddenly Lightning Lad understands what Saturn Girl's powers must have told her. So he flies to the door and doesn't even bother to use the doorknob, opting instead to break down the door, well aware of the fact that Saturn Girl is on his heals. He is tempted to grab Timberwolf in a giant hug and just keep whispering that they are real and that his father will never touch him again, but he knows that half the legion is watching through the glass and somehow, he doesn't think that Timberwolf will be too happy with that. So he just yells his name, and hopes that that is enough.

(He wonders why Kell didn't follow him into the room, didn't figure out what's going on, and then he remembers that Kell doesn't know, and somehow, he finds that odd)

~&~&~

Kell watches through the glass as Timberwolf spins around in an almost savage way to face Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, and as they exchange rapid conversation he hates the fact that the room is sound proof, he hates that fact that, if he wanted to, he could listen anyways, but that feels somehow wrong,

He wants more then anything to go into that room and, and, he doesn't know what he wants to do but seeing him through the glass suddenly isn't enough. He thinks that if Timberwolf would just smile, then that would be okay. He finds this weird for several reasons. Firstly, why the hell would he smile now? He rarely ever smiles. There is only the rare genuine smile that he shares sometime late at night when they are just hanging out.

Secondly, just because the smile is a rare beautiful thing, why does he feel like everything will be okay if he just gets to see it? Kell wants to laugh at how pathetic he suddenly feels. So he begins his slow walk towards the door, pondering Timberwolf and when he's halfway there he decides it doesn't matter what he feels, all that matters is that Timberwolf is okay

(When he was one fourth of the way there he decides that he may maybe kinda like him)

---

For the first time in a long time, Saturn Girl feels stupid. Really genuinely stupid. She should have realized what he would of thought when he woke up alone in that room. She'd been inside his head, she'd seen the terrible things his father had done to him, she'd watched only a fraction of his memories and hospitals began to scare her. They shared a special connection. She knew more then anyone about his past, and he always came to her when he wanted to talk about it. She is close to him, and was from the day they met. She loves him like a brother, and knows he loves her in the same way.

So when she hears his pathetic confession to lightning lad something in her breaks.

"I was chained to the table." He whispers it so quietly that she almost doesn't hear it.

(But she does, and she should have known)

~&~&~&~

Kell on the other hand has no difficulty hearing it, which is unsurprising because as superman's clone his hearing is way better than everyone else's. But he doesn't understand it, so he pauses in the doorway and watches as Lightning Lad apologizes over and over again and wonders why.

But Kell was never a patient individual, nor is he particularly sensitive, so he waltzes into the room and says:

"What the FUCK is going on?"

Because honestly, these people are his supposed team-mates, and he's getting a little tired of always being out of the loop.

And Timberwolf face twists into something kind of sick and ugly and he smirks

"Remember how you said that you once wished you had parents" he begins and Kell doesn't seem to know where this is going

"Parents are over-rated" and then, he storms from the room. Brushing past Kells shoulder and out the hole in the wall that is being used as the door.

Oddly, Kell is almost happy. Timberwolf is back, of course he's a little angrier, but this is Timberwolf. And he decides that that is good enough for the legion, which makes it good enough for him.

(If he locks Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad in a room until they tell him everything, and he means everything, that they know, it has nothing to do with anything.)

-~-~-~-~

Kell walks into the gym 3 days later at 4 a.m. and is unsurprised to see Brin there. According to the hospital he is beyond fully healed, in fact, he may be better than before.

Which means he of course had to instantly hit the gym. So Kell walks into the gym and is unsurprised to see him there. He is surprised when Timberwolf lets out an animalistic growl and attacks

To be fair, they fought all the time, but there was normally some sort of warning, and it had never been so… intense? He could practically see the anger radiating off of Timberwolf.

So, after being thrown into a wall (twice) Kell lets go. He lets all the bottled up anger at not being told, at being so afraid, at Brin for being Brin out. And he lets it take over.

and they just rip into each other. Using each other as there personal physical and emotional punching bags.

And after what feels like hours but was actually only 12 minutes, they collapse in the middle of the giant gym, tired yet feeling much much better.

And if Kell trips on a dumbbell when he tries to get up, he thinks it might just be okay, because it was embarrassing, but it sends Timberwolf into a fit of laughter. And for the first time in what seems like forever, there is no jaded, pained edge to the laugh. He's just genuinely happy. Just genuinely laughing

(Kell doesn't realize it but when he joins in, he's laugh is just as free)