Game night... and later on, an unexpected visitor

I had originally assumed things between Superman and I would stay awkward forever. And really, can you blame me after that disastrous first impression? But the evening after next, when it was Superman's turn on shift again, he did two things I wasn't expecting. First, he came to the apartment as Clark Kent instead of Superman, even knocking on the front door. Second, he brought company.

"So you're the guy who called my husband a cuck," the raven-haired beauty next to Superman said with a stern glare. After a moment she gave me a wry smirk and added, "Can I quote you on that for tomorrow's headline?"

I knew she was joking, but I was so nervous I still felt like I had to say, "Um... I-I'd rather you didn't..."

"Good answer," Lois Lane said, before turning to my girlfriend and asking, "How're you holding up, Kara?"

"I'm doing great!" Kara answered. And that was the truth: despite having taken a bomb to her back only two nights ago, she had already bounced back to such a degree it was hard to tell she had even been hurt in the first place. With that kind of recovery time, it was no wonder Superman never seemed like he needed a break.

Kara spotted the bag Lois was holding, and asked, "Ooh, you brought wine?"

"Apple cider, actually," Lois said, pulling the bottle out to show us, "Though it was supposed to be a surprise... honestly, you're just as bad as Clark with your peeking."

"What the occasion?" I asked.

"I though it'd be nice if we made this time a bonding experience," Superman explained, "You know, less of a guard shift and more of a family game night."

"Ooh, sounds like fun!" Kara said, before asking, "Wait, what's the game?"

With what I can only describe as a 'dad smile', Clark Kent holds up a box, "Carcassone!"

Kara breathes a sigh of relief, "Phew, I thought for a second you were going to say Monopoly."

"What's wrong with Monopoly?" I asked.

"Lois always wins at Monopoly."

"And that's why I didn't bring it," Clark said, "Don't want things to be completely hopeless for the new guy."

Lois put a hand on her hip in mock frustration, "Have you two ever considered that maybe rather than me being good at the game, you're just terrible at it?"

"Oh that is it!" Kara said with a laugh, "Pop open that bottle and get ready, because I am so kicking your butt!"

"And with 117 points, Lois wins," Clark declared.

"Again?" Kara growled in frustration, "That's the third game in a row! How are you so damn good at board games?"

Lois shrugged, and took a celebratory sip of cider, "What can I say? It's a gift and a curse. Besides, you only lost by fifteen points."

"I still can't believe you're able to do all the point calculations in your head," I told Clark, "You're not fudging things in her favor, are you? Or miscalculating?"

"Trust me Charlie, he isn't miscalculating," Kara said, "I've been keeping track too, and it's accurate."

"And Smallville's not the type to cheat at a board game, even in another person's favor," Lois said, "I'd say he's the most honest person I know, but the man sure knows how to keep a secret when he has to."

"I'll say." I look over at the mild-mannered Clark Kent again. Even knowing the truth, it's hard to believe he's the same person as Superman. He just acted so... normal.

"Speaking of secrets..." Kara said teasingly, "Who else knows about the baby?"

"Right now it's just you two, my sister, and the Kents," Lois said.

"And Bruce," Clark added. When Lois gave him a look, he said, "It's not like he wasn't going to find out on his own anyway. Besides, we are thinking about making him the godfather."

Lois sighed, then continued, "Obviously people are going to find out eventually, but for now we want to keep things quiet while we figure things out. So if you two wouldn't mind..."

"No problem, I know how to keep a secret too," I said.

"Well if you were any good at it, Metallo might not have targeted you," Lois stated.

"Hey!" Kara snapped, sitting up straight and glaring at the other woman, "Don't blame Charlie for that! He didn't tell anyone about us, did you Charlie?"

"Well, no..." I replied, wisely deciding not to bring up how I bragged to Tom about fucking her before I knew about the whole 'secret identity' thing.

"Keeping a secret isn't just about keeping your mouth shut," Lois said, "Are you two aware of just how many photos are floating around the internet of her flying around with you in her arms?"

"Not as many as you and Kal, I bet," Kara retorted.

"Yes, but everyone knows Superman's got a thing for Lois Lane," Lois said, "Plus, I'm a reporter with a reputation for getting myself into dangerous situations, so it's not odd that I get rescued by Superman a lot. Charlie on the other hand is... well, a fast food employee."

"Um, probably not for much longer," I interject, "Considering how many days of work I've been missing, and that I was thinking of quitting anyway..."

"Not my point," Lois said, "She's been carrying you around town like her personal taxi service in full costume, in broad daylight. You two might think it's enough to duck into an alleyway so no one sees you take off, but people have this funny little ability called 'looking up'. They don't do it a lot, even in this town, but the ones who do sometimes like to take pictures."

"It's not like pictures from that distance end up looking any good," Kara said, "Especially at the speeds I fly."

"They were good enough for Metallo to track Charlie down using them," Lois countered, "And if I didn't already know about him, I could probably have tracked him down that way too."

Seeing that Kara was upset, Superman said, "Look Kara, I didn't want to bring it up so soon after what happened, but Lois is right. You two really need to take the whole secrecy thing more seriously, especially with how public the **** was. There's probably people out there who are already starting to make the connection between it and the pictures, and from there..."

"Clark and I have been doing what we can to keep it under the radar of the Planet, like I'm sure you had been doing at CatCo, but that only goes so far," Lois continued, "You two really need to get better at this, because you're clearly not as good at keeping secrets as you think you are."

"I know of at least one secret you don't know about," Kara grumbled under her breath.

"Oh really now?" Lois said, causing my heart to skip a beat, "And what might that be?"

Kara seemed to also realize she said too much. "Um..."

"Am I interrupting something?"

All four of us turned towards the skylight to see Wonder Woman drifting down into the room.

"Oh, Wonder Woman!" Clark said, standing up, "Is it eleven o'clock already?"

"Almost." Diana looked down at the game tiles that we had placed across the living room floor, "Do you want help cleaning up?"

"I got it," Clark said, and with a momentary blur and a rush of wind, the game was cleaned up and put away. He picked up the box and tucked it under his arm as he stood up, "We should probably be heading home."

"Are you sure?" Diana asked, looking between the irate Lois and nervous Kara, "If you need a moment to finish your talk I can wait outside."

Lois was about to answer, but before she could Superman talked over her, "No, it's okay. We really should be getting home anyway."

"So we're just going to drop it then?" Lois asked, obviously ticked off, "Just like that?"

"Just like that," Clark told her, before looking at Kara, "We'll talk more about this another time, once you're fully recovered. But for now, get some rest."

"Will do," Kara said, "Though really, I think I'm pretty much healed up already. I've got a little bit of stinging in the back, but other than that I feel good as new."

Superman frowned, "I still want to give it one more day. If you're still feeling this good tomorrow morning, we can cancel the daytime guard shifts and just have the overnight shift." He looks over to me and gives me a smile, "Charlie, make sure she doesn't try to sneak out and do anything crazy, okay?"

"Y-Yes sir!" I yelped, puffing my chest out a little.

"Good man," Superman said with a cheeky wink. Even though it was a joke, I still felt honored that Superman asked me to do something for him.

"Goodnight everyone," Lois said. She still looked annoyed that her husband effectively made her drop the topic she was trying to push, but she was at least courteous enough not to hash it out with him in front of us.

Once the super-couple left the apartment, Diana went over to the window and started to watch the street outside. As she did, Kara put her hands on her hips and said, "Yeah, like I'm going to ditch you to fly around the city when a supervillain could show up and attack you at any moment. Seriously, I can't stand it when Kal treats me like a kid. I've told you that he's technically younger than me, haven't I?"

I couldn't help but chuckle a little at this display of hers, and hug her from behind, "You may have mentioned it once or twice."

"It's just so frustrating," she admitted, "It's like, no matter what I do or how old I get, he's always going to see me as that lost, scared teen fresh off the spaceship who needs his help."

"Wish I could say I understood, but I don't have any older cousins, or siblings for that matter." I smile, "Guess all I can say is that I guess you're lucky I only ever got to meet the strong, self-confident you, cause even at your weakest that's what I see when I look at you."

Diana pulled the curtain over the window shut, "Okay, they've got a taxi home."

She walked over to me and grabbed my face to pull me in for a long, deep kiss, which on reflex I returned. When she eventually pulled back, she was panting and looking towards me not from the position of a protector, but a lover.

"By Aphrodite I missed being with you," she gasped, her arms still around me, "You cannot imagine how rough it is to pretend I hardly know you, and not insist on being your full-time bodyguard. I just want to openly declare my love for you to the entire League so much..."

"Okay, okay, that's enough lovey-dovey stuff out of you," Kara said half-jokingly, poking Diana in the shoulder to try and gently separate us.

"Sorry, Kara," Diana said, letting go of me and putting her hands behind her back.

"Just remember who's the girlfriend here," Kara said, crossing her arms in annoyance.

Feeling the tension between the two beginning to build, I decided to try and change the subject, "So Diana. Any new leads on the whole Metallo thing?"

Diana frowned and shook her head, "Nothing solid yet. Everyone's got their own theories, but we haven't found any hard evidence connecting anyone to the ****, or Metallo's new toy. Whoever did this covered their tracks well."

"What kind of theories are you talking about?" Kara asked.

"Well based on what you all have told us about the incident, the current theory is that it was a Legion of Doom operation. But no one can figure out a motivation to target Charlie other than a personal vendetta against you specifically, which usually isn't something the Legion gets involved in."

"And what about you?" I asked, "Have you found anything on your own that might connect this to... you know..."

"My odd behavior?" Diana finished for me, "No, I haven't turned up anything on that front either. As far as I can tell, this attack is entirely unrelated."

"Yeah, I doubt Metallo had anything to do with that," Kara said.

"So in other words, you guys have no idea who might have helped him out," I said, "If anyone even did help him."

Diana looked down at her feet, clearly ashamed, "...No. I'm sorry."

Feeling guilty, I was quick to tell her, "Hey, it's okay. I know that you're doing everything you can."

"Thank you, Charlie," Diana said, raising her head back up with a smile. She then stood at attention in front of me and declared, "I promise you that I will find this threat to you and Kara, and do whatever I can to protect you from it."

"And I promise to do that too," Kara added, "Once I'm better, I'll be your personal bodyguard day and night so that Diana and the rest of the League can focus on the investigation."

"Sounds like a plan," I said, stifling a yawn, "But right now, I'm gonna take a shower before bed."

"Not without me you aren't," Kara quickly said, "I'm not going to leave you alone where any villain can bust through a wall and grab you."

"You really think that's going to happen?" I asked, not sure if she was joking or not.

"It's unlikely, but anything's possible. Plus..." she gave me a flirty wink, "...the two of us could maybe have a bit of fun in there, if you know what I mean."

I grinned at her, knowing exactly what she meant.

"I guess I'll keep watch outside the door then," Diana said.

"I don't know..." Kara teased, "You sure we won't distract you?"

Diana blushed at this, "I'll... I'll endure. Your safety is what's important."

"Oh come on Kara," I said to her, "I think she deserves a reward for all the hard work she's done for us these past few days. Even if she won't join us, we can at least let her out so she can touch herself to the sound of us fucking like animals."

Kara was blushing now, and she said, "Yeah, you have a point. Let me get her key."

Diana broke out into a grin, "Oh thank you Kara... er, Princess Kara."

"Glad you remember your manners," Kara said with a smirk.

Oh yeah, I could already tell this was going to be a fun shift.

After some rigorous shower sex, Kara and I crawled into bed. Diana had taken up a position standing guard at the foot of our bed, her gaze regularly switching between watching the bed, the window, and the bedroom door. You'd think that an Amazon looming over me on high alert ready to draw her sword at a moment's notice would be intimidating and practically impossible to fall asleep to, but I got used to it almost immediately. In fact, between her and a much healthier Kara cuddling up against me, I had never felt safer in my life. Completely at ease, I drifted off before I even realized how truly tired I was.

I wasn't sure exactly how long I had been asleep before I woke up to the feeling of Kara shaking my shoulder urgently. I groggily started to ask what she wanted, but I didn't even manage to finish saying her name before her hand clamped down over my mouth. This brought me out of my stupor very quickly, and my eyes shot open to see Kara leaning over me and holding a finger to her lips.

"Someone's in the living room," Kara whispered.

I started to panic, and I looked over towards Diana. Illuminated only by the moonlight coming in through the window, I saw her silhouette moving towards the bedroom door with an unnatural grace. Slowly and silently, she pulled her shield off her back and held it in front of her in the direction of the door.

For what felt like an eternity, none of us moved a muscle, waiting to see what would happen. Then, I heard the faint sound of the doorknob slowly turning. My heart began beating faster and faster as the door eased open, and someone else began to creep into the room.

There was a momentary feminine gasp as the intruder presumably saw Wonder Woman waiting for her on the other side, but before they could react Diana charged forward, slamming her shield against them with a loud 'clang'! The intruder was knocked out of the room, and Diana quickly drew her lasso and whipped it forward. The rope went taut and lit up, confirming it had hit its target, and I could see the cord start to rapidly angle upwards as if the person on the other end was trying to fly away. Diana was having none of that though, and grabbing onto the lasso with both hands, she gave a sharp tug downwards and back, forcing the intruder to slam into the ground.

Kara leapt out of bed and flew out the door to help Diana subdue the intruder. Meanwhile, I scrambled over to the light switch and flicked it on, not sure what else to do. Should I run and hide? Wait in bed? Try to help? Shout for Superman?

Before I could reach a decision, I heard Kara shout in disbelief, "Starfire?!? What the hell are you doing?"

At the mention of the name, I jumped out of bed and made my way to the door, looking out into the living room. Sure enough, my girlfriend had the orange-haired alien, now dressed in her iconic purple costume, pinned to the floor underneath her.

When Starfire saw me, she let out a whimper and started squirming in a futile attempt to break free of both Kara and the lasso around her legs, "Charlie! Charlie please! I am sorry to intrude, but I need your help!"

"Charlie, do you know what is she talking about?" Diana asked, still tightly holding onto the lasso.

"I... I don't think so..." I mumbled, even though deep in my heart, I did.

"Please Charlie, I know it is late!" Starfire whimpered, "But I need you to touch me! I do not know why, but I cannot take being away from you anymore!"

"Okay, we can't do this under an open skylight," Kara said, getting up off of Starfire, "Let's get her into the bedroom and figure out what the hell she is talking about."

Now free of Kara, Starfire tried to crawl towards me, only to be dragged backwards as Diana began pulling the end of the lasso towards her like a fisherman would pull in a big catch. Kara closed the skylight that Starfire left open, then she and I followed them into the bedroom.

Once she had Starfire directly in front of her, Diana placed her foot on Starfire's back and tugged on the lasso, causing its golden glow to intensify as she asks, "Why are you here, Starfire?"

**** to tell the truth, Starfire couldn't stop herself from answering, "I need to have sex with Charlie! O-Or be with him while I voorlim... I-I do not know... I just need to be with him!"

Diana and I look at each other for a moment, both of us finding this situation to be eerily familiar. Diana then asked Starfire, "Why?"

Starfire's eyes began to tear up as she explains, "I have been not been able to achieve the orgasm since that night. Voorlim does not work. Sex with Dick Grayson does not work. And I keep thinking about Charlie. The smell of his hair as I carried him. The feel of his lips as I kissed him. How warm he looked as I touched myself to him. I want more of that. I need more."

"Wait, you kissed her?" Kara asked me, "When did this happen? And when were you going to tell me about it?"

"It was after she flew me away from the battle with Metallo," I explained, "A-And I was waiting to tell you until we didn't have to worry about a bodyguard overhearing us anymore."

"That was a wise decision," Diana said, "Because from what she is describing, it sounds like she is suffering from whatever is affecting me."

Starfire craned her neck to look up at Diana, "W-What? You are feeling this too?"

"Whoa whoa, hold up," Kara said, sitting down on the bed and looking down at Starfire, "Does that mean you came here to... **** yourself on Charlie?"

"I... I did not..." Starfire started to say, but the lasso began to glow brighter, and she let out a scream and starts writhing on the floor.

"What's happening to her?" I asked worriedly.

"The Lasso is trying to **** a response out of her, but she's resisting," Diana explained, "Either that, or it is not something she wants to admit to herself."

"I did not want to!" Starfire blurted out, "But I am so ****, that if I touched him, or even got too close... I do not know what I would have done. Please Charlie, help me feel good again!"

I wasn't entirely sure what to do here. This was now the third superheroine to beg me for sex. While it happening once may be happenstance, and twice could be a coincidence, by the third time it's a pattern. Something weird was definitely going on with the superheroines around me, and while I had no idea what it could be at the moment, I couldn't ignore it any longer.

"Star, does Dick know you are here?" Kara asked slowly.

"No, he does not..." Starfire admitted, tears dripping down her face and onto the floor, "I could not tell him about something like this. It would hurt him too much to know that I... that I want to have sex with another man instead of him."

"No shit," I muttered, "So what now? Do we just... fuck, I don't-"

"Yes please!" Starfire interrupted eagerly, before letting out a squeak and covering her mouth.

"If you don't pleasure her, I won't exactly feel comfortable letting her up," Diana admitted, pressing her foot down on Starfire harder, "When I was in her state, all I could think about was sex with you, and it was hard for me to resist pinning you down and taking you for myself. I calmed down eventually, but that was after I got some measure of what I wanted. The way she is now, especially after days without any release..."

"Okay, so all Charlie needs to do is get her off and we'll be good?" Kara asked, "That doesn't sound too bad."

"Are you kidding me?" I shouted, "Kara, don't you see the issue here? This is the same thing that happened to Diana, except this time she's got a boyfriend! How the hell are we going to explain this to him?"

Kara shrugged, "Simple: we don't. We can keep this a secret like we do with Diana."

"And what if this happens to another girl?" I asked her. When she didn't give me an answer, I stated, "We need to find out what is going on here and... and fix it! We need to get her and Diana back to normal, and..."

"Charlie," Diana said, "Even if Kara and I were any closer to finding out if something odd was going on, which we aren't by the way... is that really what you want?"

"Y-Yes, of course!" I answered, "Why wouldn't I...?"

"Because even if this is a plot by a supervillain of some kind, and if it's something that can be reversed... I don't know if we should."

I stared at Diana in disbelief, "You're kidding me. Seriously?"

"Right now, my primary concern is to keep you safe and happy," Diana explained, "If I were to be 'fixed' as you put it, I might not think that way anymore. I may still want to protect you, but I might consider it more of a priority to imprison you, or use you as bait in a trap for whoever is doing this. I do not know for sure, and I do not want to take the risk of having myself think that way about you if I do not have to."

I rubbed my eyes in frustration, "I can't believe this is happening. This must be a dream..."

"Is he... is he not going to have sex with me?" Starfire whimpered from the floor.

I felt gentle hands on my shoulders, and Kara's voice whispered in my ear, "Charlie, look at Starfire. She needs you right now. She's aching for you."

I opened my eyes again and gazed down at the woman being pinned to the ground by Diana's foot. Starfire looked back up at me, her eyes pleading for me to help her.

"I know this is hard for you, and I love that you're trying to do the right thing here," Kara continues, "But if you don't do something, and she is suffering from whatever Diana was, she might end up doing something stupid and hurting herself. The way I see it, the best thing you can do for her is to stick that nice thick cock of yours in her and show her a good time."

"B-But she's not in her right mind..." I started to say.

"Maybe not, but no one here blames you for that, baby. And until we know if we can reverse this, or even why it's happening, we can't really do anything else for her."

Then slightly louder so Diana can hear, she says, "The way I see it, we have two options. You can either help get her off, or we can **** her to leave."

"Please, no, do not make me leave!" Starfire wailed, "Not before I get it off! Please, just let me voorlim. I promise I will leave right afterwards, but please let me at least touch myself while looking at you."

"From firsthand experience, I can tell you that forcing her to leave likely won't end well either," Diana says, "She'll just keep coming back, and if we can't get her under control, she's going to do something drastic. And that will result in someone getting hurt, and a lot more attention on us."

As much as I hated to admit it to myself, Kara and Diana were right. We had no way to stop whatever was affecting Starfire right now, and telling someone else at this point was going to raise too many questions. Maybe... maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I 'helped' Starfire though this like I'm doing with Diana. At least until we can find out what's going on and figure out some other way to help her. Besides, if we went to the Justice League about this now, and they found out how we handled the situation with Diana... I didn't see it ending well for any of us.

"...Okay," I said, finally coming to a decision, "Here's what we're going to do."