Metal Has No Heartbeat (A Blue Beetle/Jaime Reyes [Young Justice] Fanfiction)

Nine: Radiates Warmth

"This is your room!" Beast Boy exclaims, leading Axel to another metal door.

To explain, the Justice League's junior team work out of a mountain. The shift from shipping containers by the beach to the inside of a mountain is, well, pretty freaking awesome.

It's a little hard not to be star struck as we pass by a room that is entirely walled by glass, where I can see the Black Canary, talking to Blade.

"This is your room!" Cassie, Wondergirl says, pulling Lenore away from myself and Miss Martian to another door embedded in the wall.

"And this is yours," M'gann continues, taking me to the next one. I had expected it to be cold in here and smelling of damp dirt. Instead it's a normal temperature and the air smells like sweet nature and Earth.

Gently, I press the handle of the heavy metal door down and push it open. It swings wide to reveal a dark, rock-walled, spacious room.

"The light is on your left," M'gann says. I reach in and flick it on. It's slightly bigger than my room back in Creeper's Point. There's a bed on the far side, big enough to tightly squeeze two people- ha, a chest of draws, a floating wall shelf and a desk. "Here's your things."

I duck into the room, out of the way of Miss Martian telekinetically levitating my bags and suitcases into the room.

Seeing my stuff in here makes everything all the more real.

Suddenly, the green-skinned girl giggles. That's right, she can hear my thoughts.

"You know, it's nice to finally meet you," she tells me.

I blink, "What do you mean? Were you a fan of the channel or something?"

"I've seen a few videos here and there," she smiles, "but I mostly heard about you from Jaime's thoughts. From the way he absent-mindedly wondered about you, accounted memories of you, you sounded wonderful. I don't usually tell people what others have been thinking but I just thought you should know that."

I stare at her in silence. What am I supposed to respond with? A thank you? A nervous chuckle whilst waving it off? She seems to understand my internal battle and starts laughing again.

"Welcome to the Team," she smiles warmly, leaning over me with a hug. Confused I go along with it, accepting the embrace. "I'll leave you to unpack!"

With that, she leaves me alone in my room. My room. 

My first instinct should be to unpack, put my clothes in my draws and set my laptop up. Or maybe I should be getting out the recording equipment and sending a tweet out to the followers.

But instead, I sit on my bed and pull my phone out. I scroll through my contacts until I see the name I was looking for.

Otou-san. My dad.

I don't know what I'll get, calling him. It could be his secretary, or his new wife, or his daughter. I press the phone to my ear and it rings a couple times.

And some more. 

And some more. 

The voice mail message starts in robotic Japanese and I'm already hanging up, tossing my phone towards the pillow.

Dammit. If tears could fall they would. I'm used to this. He doesn't care, and he never has.

So instead I grab the first suitcase containing clothes and begin unpacking them into the draws. Halfway through the second case there is no room, so I tuck the bags at the base of my bed, in the corner of the room.