So I had this idea the other night while I was at work and decided to swap it out with the other oneshot I had up before. As it is, that one's probably going to get rewritten or something… I don't know. Anyways, here's a new update and please, let me know what you think!

Privileges

Jo Nah stood outside his girlfriend's door, staring at the cold, hard metal. He'd been outside her room for nearly an hour and a half as he tried to get her to let him in. With an impatient sigh, he knocked once more against the door. "Tinya, c'mon. Let me in so we can talk about this." He paused. "Please?"

He was met with silence. He leaned his ear against the door to see if he could hear anything, but there was nothing to indicate that she was even in there. With powers like hers, it was highly possible that she could have left without him even knowing. He punched the door in frustration.

"Something I can help you with?" a low growling voice asked from behind him.

He turned around and came face to face with dangerously narrowed red and gold eyes. He suppressed a shiver at the sight. Call it pride, but he'd rather not let on that he was unsettled by their owner. He swallowed nervously, took a step away from the door, and straightened his shoulders as he forced his gaze to meet Timber Wolf's.

"I highly doubt it," he said stiffly. "Her door's been locked and shut for almost three hours. I've been trying for at least half of that to get her to talk to me. Luornu's already tried as well, but it looks like she's not letting anyone in."

As Timber Wolf's eyebrow rose in silent question, Jo clenched his jaw. He hated that look. He'd seen Tinya give him the same look many times, and he had to wonder if she got it from Timber Wolf or if he got it from her. That stupid look managed to be both inquiring and challenging at the same time, and he always ended up responding to it. Grudgingly, he found himself telling Timber Wolf that Tinya was upset with something he said, but she was refusing to talk to him about it.

Timber Wolf stepped around him and took his place by the door. Jo watched, arms folded, wondering how he thought he could succeed in getting through to her. His mouth tightened into a thin line when Timber Wolf entered a code that had the door opening a moment later. As much as he himself wanted to enter the room, one look from Timber Wolf kept him in place as the feral legionnaire disappeared inside. The door locked once again as it slid shut behind him, leaving Jo to wait outside once more.

…

Tinya looked up at the sound of her door opening. She was unsurprised when she saw Brin walk in. He was the only one whom she'd shared the code for her room with. After an incident two and a half years ago when he'd nearly broken down her door because he'd thought she was hurt when a bookcase got knocked over, she'd thought it a good idea for him to be able to have an alternative means of checking on her that didn't involve wrecking the Tower. Besides, it was only fair that he have open door privileges considering the fact that she was able to come and go as she pleased from his room.

Brin said nothing at first as he crossed the room to where she was sitting cross-legged in the middle of her bed, computer tablets spread out around her in a half-circle. Carefully moving some of them out of the way, he climbed in next to her. He stretched his long legs out in front of him and leaned back against the headboard of her bed as he looked at her expectantly. "Want to tell me what's going on?"

She sighed and shook her head. She scooped up the tablets into a pile before moving to sit a little closer to him. The offensive items sat in her lap, reminding her of what had happened earlier.

"Tinya! How nice to see you! Oh, and wearing color as well, my, my. That is a surprise," her mother said approvingly as she hugged Tinya.

"Hello mother." Tinya barely managed to refrain from rolling her eyes as she pulled out of her mother's embrace. The red jacket hadn't even been a conscious decision to wear, it had just become like second nature for her to reach for it whenever she was going out somewhere, but she should have known her mother was going to make something of it.

From next to her, Jo held out his hand in greeting. "Hello, President Wazzo, I'm Jo Nah."

"Ah yes, I remember you from the Intergalactic Games." Her mother shook his hand. With a glance at Tinya, she whispered conspiratorially to ask him, "So, tell me how you managed to convince my monochromatically inclined daughter to wear something with any sort of color. I've been trying for years… and nothing! What's your secret?"

Tinya scowled at the two of them, acting as if she couldn't hear what they were saying. Seriously, was it that big a deal?

"I, uh, actually had nothing to do with that," Jo admitted.

"Oh?" The prompting tone in her mother's voice turned that one syllable into a question.

Jo rubbed at the back of his head and laughed once. "Yeah, it was one of our teammates. He was the one who gave it to her for her birthday."

"Tinya!" Her mother gave her a sharp look. "You shouldn't be accepting gifts from another boy while you're already going out with this nice young man. How do you think that looks?" Tinya opened her mouth to respond, but her mother turned back to Jo. "Who gave her this gift, anyway?"

"Timber Wolf," he said, not meeting Tinya's glare.

"That feral-looking boy?"

It was that comment that did it for Tinya. What little patience she had disappeared and she snapped, "First of all, it was a birthday gift from a friend, my best friend as it happens, and secondly, that 'feral-looking boy' has a name. However, none of that is relevant to why I'm wearing what I'm wearing!"

When she saw the shocked look on her mother's face, she took a calming breath. "Look, let's just enjoy lunch, okay? It's been a long week, and we didn't come here to talk about my clothes."

"I'm sorry, dear. Of course, you're right." Her mother placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm just a concerned mother, that's all. Sometimes I get a little carried away."

"That's alright," Tinya said as the waiter came to lead them to their table.

After being seated, Jo struck up a conversation with her mother, leaving her free to hide behind the menu. When Jo had first told her that he'd set up a time for them to have lunch with her mother, she'd been furious that he'd gone behind her back, but maybe she had just been overreacting. All things considered, his meeting her mother was going better than expected.

Or at least it was until her mother brought out the computer tablets.

"Tinya." The menu was pulled away from her and replaced with a box. "This box has tablets from many different universities across the galaxy. Each one has a digitally guided tour of the campus and their facilities, information on their programs and degrees, directions for applying, and any other information you might need."

Hesitantly, Tinya asked, "Need for what?"

"To go to college," her mother said as if the answer were obvious. "You're nineteen years old, and you need to think about a future outside the Legion. You won't be a legionnaire forever. I know you've been doing this hero thing for a while now, but it's time for you to realize that you can't make a life out of it."

"No." Tinya shoved the box away. "The Legion is not just a hobby or a pastime for me. It is my life, and I'm not leaving it."

Mother and daughter looked at one another, each holding their ground in their silent battle of wills, only to have the silence broken by the clearing of a throat. Two pairs of grey eyes turned to Jo Nah.

"If I may, Tinya doesn't have to leave the Legion to go to school, does she? I mean, there are online classes that she could take part-time," he reasoned. He reached over to place his hand on Tinya's.

Tinya pulled her hand away, placing it in her lap where he couldn't reach under the table. His opinion had no place in this. Her complicated relationship with her mother was one he couldn't begin to grasp on the first meeting, and he had no right to interfere. He didn't know her mother like she did. His suggestion, well-meaning though it was, would not be accepted by her mother at all.

Sure enough, her mother's clipped tones answered back, "These universities do not offer scholarships for part-time students! An Ivy League school will require her full focus and attention if she's to get the most out of it. My daughter needs to realize that securing her future just might require sacrificing a few years of her time to pursue school instead of criminals."

"The answer is no." Tinya glared.

Her attention was redirected once again as Jo leaned towards her. His tone was admonishing as he said, "You should at least think about it, Tinya. Your mother's just trying to help, and it would only be for a few years. You could always come back to the Legion during breaks and after you finish school."

Caught between the approval in her mother's look and the expectation in Jo's, Tinya felt trapped. There was no arguing unless she wanted to cause a scene. With no other options readily available, she agreed to at least think about it before making a final decision.

Here, now, in her room with Brin, she sat silently, but not without communicating. Over the past couple years, she had figured out that part of what made him Timber Wolf included the ability to sense emotions. They'd never talked about it outright, but still, she knew that he'd be able to pick up on what she was feeling if she let him. She focused on consciously revealing her mixed emotions to share what she couldn't verbalize. She watched as he processed the things he was sensing from her and waited until she saw him look at her again.

She handed him one of the tablets from her lap. As he turned it on and saw the information it contained, she saw his brow furrow. "What's this?"

For a moment, she didn't want to tell him. She was fully aware that the person pacing outside her door wasn't going to be happy that Brin had been welcome where he had not. Despite their dating relationship, there were things that Jo had not yet learned about her – things that Brin already knew. Right now, she couldn't bring herself to care that Jo might be bothered by the fact that she trusted Brin more. She was too distracted with trying to figure out what she should tell her best friend because she couldn't not tell him something. He deserved to know.

"Talk to me?" he asked. "Please?"

So she did. She told him everything about the argument with her mother about her going away to college and about Jo's suggestion that she go ahead and take this opportunity that her mother was offering.

When she was done, Brin took the remaining tablets from her and moved them to his other side away from her. He placed a finger under her chin and tilted her face towards him. She felt some of the tension ease away as she looked into his eyes. Red and gold, the eyes of a predator, his was the gaze she sought when she was upset. Where others found fear, she found safety. They had come a long way from arguing about who got to fight what monster, and she no longer resented his ability to see past her sarcasm or defensive walls to the person she was underneath.

"Tinya," he said quietly, "whatever choice you make, I just want you to make sure that you're doing it for you." His hand moved to her shoulder. "It's your life, your choice. What do you want?"

"I want to stay," she whispered.

"Then stay."

…

Brin was careful to not wake Tinya as he left her room. At some point while they were talking about the problems surrounding her decision and how to handle them, she had fallen asleep against him. Not that he objected, but it had been at least an hour or so since he had entered her room, and he could still smell the overly-cologned jerk outside her door. His hand hovered for a moment over the button to open the door as he glanced back at her. A slight shiver from her made him redirect his steps to her closet where she kept an extra blanket or two. After covering her with them to make sure she was comfortable, he left her room.

Jo Nah was sitting on the floor, leaned up against the wall across from her door with his arms resting on his knees. Brin sensed the anger seething under his jealousy as he entered the hall. Getting to his feet, Jo said, "Well?"

"She told me what happened."

Jo snorted. "Of course she did."

Timber Wolf glared. He let just enough of his feral side show through his demeanor as he said, "She has made her decision regarding her future, and you will respect it. Being her boyfriend doesn't give you the privilege to tell her what to do."

"But being her friend gives you the privilege to walk into her room when she doesn't want to talk?" Jo challenged, despite the fact that Timber Wolf could smell his fear.

Moving to stand directly toe to toe with him, Timber Wolf found it perversely amusing when Jo Nah flinched at his unsettling stare. "Being her friend has nothing to do with it. Having her trust, however, is another matter entirely. Let's face it, if she didn't want me in there, she could just as easily have phased me through the floor, but she didn't."

Jo flushed in anger at the reminder. "That still doesn't explain why you have the code to her door," he said obstinately.

"My open door privileges are none of your business." Timber Wolf crossed his arms. "All you need to know is that if you want this thing between you two to work, then you'd better learn how to let her make her own choices. You can offer her advice or ask questions, but the minute you try to force a decision, I promise that you won't like the results." He turned away to enter his own room.

"And why is that?" Jo's voice stopped him.

Timber Wolf looked over his shoulder back at him. As he saw the wariness in Jo's expression, he wondered if this guy was even worth trying to help, but still he answered,"Because whether you like it or not, being her friend means that I already know how this is going to play out. If you don't stop trying to change who she is, you're going to lose her."

Stepping through his door, Timber Wolf allowed it to slide shut before another question could be asked. He'd done his good deed for the week where Jo Nah was concerned, and it was up to him to decide what to do with it. Personally, Timber Wolf didn't care much one way or the other, but Tinya was already going to have a mess to deal with once she spoke to her mother again. The last thing she needed on top of everything else was a petulant boyfriend with hurt feelings. One of these days he was simply going to step away and let Jo Nah deal with the consequences of his own mistakes, but for now he was going to help Tinya in any way he could.

Because that's what friends do.