Chapter I - Uno

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It occurred to J'onn that they were wasting a lot of time. Not that he had anything better to do with it.

He sat on the floor opposite the Flash and watched her deal another set of some rather colorful cards. 'Uno', she'd called their game because she said – with a cheeky smile at one of the security cameras – that Batman would likely not appreciate gambling in the Watchtower.

Not that he knew what any of that meant. But he'd settled down on the floor with her in one of the larger rooms and decided to see what she was talking about. Pleased by J'onn's willingness to go along with her plan, she'd shown him the cards, what the symbols on them meant and the basic rules before dealing sets of seven to each of them and firmly saying, "I'll explain more to you as we go along."

J'onn was very confused. The card symbols were strange, their colors bright and this was not in any way related to their work. Why was the Flash showing him this? And why was she lying down on the floor instead of sitting on it? And why were they on the floor in the first place? But he couldn't very well ask her yet because all throughout the entire set, she kept up a steady monologue that went on so endlessly it was almost admirable. He wasn't even sure what she talking about anymore, only that she continued to speak.

"Uno," he intoned. He dropped a fragile little card into their scattered pile of rejects. The Flash paused in her words and eyed it seedily. She shuffled her cards around somewhat, a competitive gleam in her lenses, before triumphantly dropping a +4 of her color choice.

"This is usually more intense with more players," she noted, almost apologetically.

J'onn considered this as he drew four cards from the neat pile. He'd raised quite a fuss from her when he'd accidentally mistaken what he should put or take where. "Perhaps you should have requested Hawkgirl to play as well."

"Nah, she's busy today."

"Green Lantern?"

"Off-world."

"Wonder Woman?"

The Flash frowned slightly, fingering the worn edges of her remaining cards. Considering the next move, maybe? She'd allowed J'onn to win their first two rounds, mostly because she still coached him on what to do but now was she playing to win. "She wanted to explore 'Man's World' and settle into her apartment. Which I actually don't know how she got." She paused with a thoughtful side glance at the security camera. "I think Bats is planning on funding everyone on the team who don't have papers in the system. You could probably get a place somewhere if you wanted to."

"I will familiarize myself with Earth a little at a time. Finding a house and a job…" He grimaced. "It is too permanent."

" 'Too permanent'?" she echoed, disturbed. "You're not planning on leaving us any time soon, are you?"

J'onn shook his head. "Not at all. It is simply that Earth is vastly different from my home. Too much of it at once … confuses me." He had no desire for a repeat of the first time he tried to take on a human guise for an entire rotation period.

"Huh. Well, I guess that is kinda natural," the Flash admitted, her voice turning soft with sympathy. "Human cultures are different enough … and you and I are literally worlds away."

He tossed one card after another into the pile: a turn cancel, a +2 and skip player, another skip, and a +4 – and relished the indignant squawk from his human teammate. A pause, then: "Uno."

The Flash pouted and J'onn gave her a little grin.

"Hey, why don't I go with you next time?"

J'onn blinked. "To Earth?"

"No," she said flatly, "To the moon."

He let out a small huff and her expression – what little of it was exposed – softened.

"Yeah, I mean, I can show you around, explain stuff to you… Unless, of course, you wanna go around on your own, which I can completely respect, too."

J'onn dropped his last card and won. "I am not opposed to your company."

"But would you like it?"

J'onn considered the past hour. 'Uno' still seemed rather a pointless thing and his legs felt odd after sitting on the floor for so long. The Flash's idle chatter had kept his mind from completely wandering away even if he hadn't the capacity to remember everything she said. He hadn't needed to think too deeply, merely letting himself occasionally nod and acknowledge her words. It was simple, peaceful.

Normal.

"Of course," he said.

The Flash broke out into a toothy grin. "Well, that's great! Hey, help me pack all this up, will ya?"

As they organized the mess into something that would fit the box it came from, J'onn couldn't help but wonder again. "Why did you come here today?"

She stilled. "What do you mean?"

"Your shift is still two rotations away and I did not send an alert that required your presence. But you came."

The Flash nodded slowly, closing the card box. "It's my day off and I wanted to spend some time with you and you said you were free today when I asked, so…" She shrugged, her hand rising to cup the back of her neck. She smiled sheepishly. "I know you're fine being on your own but you're part of the team now. So I thought it would be nice to play some cards."

"It was," he said, before she could doubt it. "It was nice."

She smiled then, a real one, relieved. "Great. So, what've you got planned for the rest of the day?"

"I have no plan."

"Really? Shame." The Flash checked her watch. "Well, what do you know? It's almost lunchtime. Wanna beam down to Earth and grab a bite?"

"In our suits?"

She looked down at herself. Shrugged. "Yeah, why not? Saving the world makes people hungry."

J'onn nodded hesitantly. The Flash had been a hero to her city for longer than the Justice League existed – he would trust her judgment on this.

"Awesome! Don't worry, J'onn, people might look a bit – or a lot – but no one's going to do anything. Oh! There's this really great Chinese place that we can get to real quick. You're gonna love it." The Flash turned to face him, grasped his shoulders and said, far too seriously to be taken as such, "I am going to show you the world, J'onn."

He tilted his head, confusion reigning supreme. "I have already seen your world–"

"The culinary world," she amended. "It's one of the most important ones on Earth. And I've pretty much run over every inch of its surface so I would know."

The idea of a planet having its own metaphorical worlds was amusing. J'onn smiled. "I am glad to have a knowledgeable tour guide."

"Damn right," she said confidently, turning on her heel towards the transporter. "Beam us out, J'onn! We're going exploring."

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Author's Note: The title is taken from the song 'Little Wonders' by Rob Thomas. This fic won't have an overarching plot, I think. It'll just be a small collection of one-shots between the team.

Thank you for reading!