The Adventures of Michael and Winn and Sometimes Ava

BoosterSchott

Lena looked down at all the paperwork on her desk and groaned, resisting the urge to bang her head against her impractically unstable desk. She picked up her phone and dialed with aggression. Winn picked up.

"Hey, Lena, wassup?"

"I need a favor," Lena said, always one to get straight to the point. 

"Does it involve spiders?" Winn asked slowly. 

"No."

"Okay, cool, we're in."

"We?" Lena asked. She raised an eyebrow even though she knew Winn couldn't see it. It was her signature thing, after all. 

"Yeah, Michael's over here. He just got off work, and we were gonna watch a movie."

"I thought he was retired."

"Yeah, he overestimated how far his superhero budget would stretch. He got offered this job as a mechanic after fixing this dude's car on the side of the road, so he took it."

"Okay, cool," Lena replied, half listening. "Can you guys please pick Ava up from soccer practice? Kara and I are supposed to take her out for pizza like we always do, but she's stuck at a bank robbery and I can't even think about leaving work yet. There was a mishap in one of the labs, and one of our scientists lost his eyebrows, and he's threatening to sue because he's difficult."

"Yeah, sure," Winn answers. "Although I'm not sure how good Michael is with kids..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I love kids!" Michael yelled a little too closely to Winn's face. 

He beamed as the girls started to trickle back onto the field, bounding back over to his place in the goal. After practice had ended, Michael had taken up residency in the goalie bock, letting the kids take turns trying to score on him. Most of the girls' parents had already taken their kids home, as it had already been a good twenty minutes since practice ended, but a few of Ava's close friends remained, and Michael seemed to already know all of their names. 

"Nice one, Tucker!" he shouted as a ball went flying past his head. "That was beautiful! Uh oh, Marley, too slow. You'll get there, though!" 

Winn stood with his hands on his hips, watching with an amused smile. After the rest of the girls went home, Ava practically launched herself on Michael's back, wrapping her legs around his waist and messing up his floppy blonde hair. Michael chuckled, not phased by the sixth grader clinging to him. 

"Kara and Lena said to tell you they're very sorry they have to miss pizza night tonight, and they said they'll take you to the zoo this weekend to make it up to you if your foster parents are okay with that."

"Sure," Ava said, surprisingly agreeable. "Michael's super cool. I'm glad they sent you guys as replacement."

"Hey! I'm cool too!" Winn said. 

"No, you're not, but I like you anyway," Ava returned. She smacked Michael's shoulder lightly. "Faster! It's time for pizza!" 

Michael laughed and took off running, circling back around when he realized they were pulling too far ahead of Winn. 

"C'mon, babe, let's get the girl some pizza," he said, dropping his pace to a jog and offering Winn his hand. "I'll pay if you'll run with us." 

Winn shrugged, interlaced their fingers, and ran beside Michael, keeping pretty good pace all the way to the pizza parlour. 

"Y'know what you guys need?" Ava mused fifteen minutes later, already halfway through her second slice of pizza. She didn't wait for them to respond. "A ship name."

Winn choked on his pizza. Michael just propped his chin up on his hands and looked at Ava expectantly.

"Do go on, kid," he said, raising his eyebrows. 

"Hmm..." Ava paused for a moment before clapping her hands excitedly. "I got it! BoosterSchott!" 

Winn snorted and Michael laughed loudly, throwing his head back.

"BoosterSchott! It's perfect!" He pulled out his phone, texting rapidly, and a few seconds later, Winn felt his own phone vibrate. He looked down to find that Michael had texted the Superfriends group chat. 

Michey: Hey guys! Ava says Winn and I are #BoosterSchott

Kara Damnvers: Omg I love it! #BoosterSchott 4 life

Lil Luthor: Tell Ava she's a genius and that we miss her

Winn typed back a "Will do" and looked up to find both Michael and Ava smiling expectantly at him. He furrowed his brow in confusion until he caught sight of the fresh cannolis being put into the display case by a bored looking employee. Michael gave him a kiss on the cheek and gestured towards the desserts with his head. 

"Fine," Winn relented. "You guys can have one. Even though you both demolished medium pizzas by yourselves already."

Ava and Michael high fived, and, honestly, Winn was a little offended that they were ganging up on him. However, he was considerably less offended when Michael placed his cannoli in front of him and did jazz hands on either side of it.

"For you, m'dear," he announced. "We can share." 

It turned out to be a really good cannoli. 

Somehow, Ava convinced Winn and Michael to take the long way back to her house, the setting sun enveloping them in a kind of hazy glow. 

"Thank you for taking me to dinner," she said from her spot on Michael's shoulders. 

"Anytime, kiddo," Michael said back. 

"Yeah," Winn agreed. "It was really fun hanging out with you, Ava. I see why Kara and Lena started this tradition with you."

"We could do Fridays," Ava suggested hopefully. "Maybe not every Friday because that's kind of a busy day sometimes, but, like, once a month? Tucker wants to try to beat Michael and Soccer. And you can play, too, Winn. Tucker's better than me, so you can be on her team, and it'll even out."

"Sure," Winn said. "Every Friday, once a month. BoosterSchott and Ava."

Ava giggled. 

"BoosterSchott and Ava." 

Winn kissed Michael on the way home from dropping Ava off as a way of saying thank you. Michael kissed Winn on his doorstep as a way of saying 'no problem'. Winn kissed Michael after inviting him back inside to finally watch their movie. Michael woke up in Winn's bed the next day.