Though Behrad had been on the ship for about a month or two now (it was hard to keep track of time in the temporal zone), he still felt like he hadn’t found his spot. It wasn’t like he didn’t fit with the team; he got along with them pretty well, some better than others. It was just in that times like these, the stagnant hours or days between missions, it was hard to figure out how to fill the time.
He had been seeing what there was to get up to in the kitchen, but then Mick came in and Behrad didn’t have to be told to give the guy some space. Which had sent him down the hall towards the engine room.
“Goddamnit, how does a telepathic gorilla fuck up a ship so bad?”
Behrad stopped at the open door to the engine room. Jax was trying to fix… something. He hadn’t spent much time in here, filled with its strange tech that was futuristic even for him.
“Hey, you need any help?” he asked, sticking his head in a little. “I can get you like, a snack, or if you need me to hold something-”
Jax turned to him. “Uh, thanks. Yeah, come in here.”
The engine room looked torn out as he came in. He didn’t know what had happened on the ship, but it looked like it had gotten rocked around a little too much.
He stood next to him at the panel he was looking at. “What do I have to hold?”
Chuckling, he said, “Call this a learning experience.” Jax opened up the dented panel, sparks flying out as he did. “Well, alright, maybe it’ll be a rough one.”
The inside was a mess of wires, but he could see what was causing the problem - some of them had been pulled from their proper circuits, leaving things disconnected.
“Some of the ship’s cloaking tech got damaged in the fight with Grodd. I’m gonna have to fix some things when we land outside of the temporal stream, but the actual connection to the controls got fucked up.” He handed Behrad a set of pliers. “I’ll walk you through it.”
He would admit he had thought he would get to stand there and hand him tools, not actually repair the ship. But… it was nice to be trusted with something. He took the pliers and knelt down to start. He took one of the wires that looked the most loose and got ready to reattach it.
“Oh, don’t put that there.” Jax stopped his hand right before he plugged the socket in.
“What? Would that have fucked everything up?”
“No. You could have died.”
Behrad laughed. “Oh. Good one, dude.” But he wasn’t laughing back. “Oh.”
“These engines can be a little, uh, hazardous.” He patted his shoulder. “That one goes into the one at the far left.”
With Jax guiding him through it, it seemed like no time until it was back to normal. Or, what he could assume it normally looked like. He shut the panel and stood up, stretching as he did. “How do you do all this alone?”
“The other Legends, well, their idea of helping is talking to me about what’s going on with them as I try to work. I love them, but, they know I know what I’m doing,” he told Behrad. “Ray told me how you disabled that signal blocker at that camp.”
“Oh, yeah. That was just, you know, figuring it out on the fly.”
“You’ve got a talent,” Jax said. “Maybe with your help, we can get this old girl back in fighting shape before we go to Central City.”
okay i talk a lot abt firestoner and the POTENTIAL but i am missing out on the funniest part which is behrad basically becoming son-in-law with martin stein bc although i don’t really see him n jax having that much of a father/son relationship, jax still is basically a member of the stein family whether he likes or not
n like. behrad knows martin. they lived on a ship together for abt two months b4 homie retired. he was there for stein’s weird ancestor sitch. he was there for the body swap. they probably got high together at least one (1) time and it was kind of a weird experience for both of them.
but jax brings behrad around to the stein household bc that’s what u do. u introduce ur boyfriend to ur mom, then to ur former nuclear partner who has adopted u into his family bc his wife loves u n his daughter is like ur sister. it is fine. and behrad who has probably not seen martin since he left the team is justl ike. hey man. what’s up. uh how’s that granddad life going bc it really is like dating ur coworker’s son n having to navigate that rocky landscape
n he’s like. a little worried bc martin also knows behrad’s deal. he knows he’s a stoner who also has a reputation of, u know, lying to his parents abt being a business student and stuff like that. b is like ‘this man knows all the bad shit i’ve done and will deem me Unworthy to date the dude who is practically his son’ except martin has also been waiting to set up jax with someone for two years and altho a part of him is like ‘jefferson could u have a touch better sense. some better sense plz’ bc he would have preferred him to date an Actual Business Student PLEASE JEFFERSON-
and it is the awkwardest family dinner until martin takes behrad aside before dessert n basically gives him the shovel talk bc just bc he is nearly 70 years old does not mean he is not a little intimidating but then he’s like. and look. when u two get married just know that i am a rabbi and - yes, mr. tarazi, i’m aware you’re a muslim man but just know that i would be happy to perform u n jefferson’s ceremony
so that happens. n we cannot even talk abt CLARISSA AND LILY who are also teasing abt jax’s new beau and how he’s so handsome n dignified when martin lets it slip that ‘we got high once’ and jax wishes they still had that psychic bond to project his suffering directly into martin’s brain
anyways. there is so much potential with this and i am dying
89 + firestoner? (sorry it’s still missing/worrying about behrad hours)
no worries you know i love writing me some firestoner
89. “You can spend the night, if you want.” + Firestoner
Behrad hadn’t meant to stay so long.
He’d meant to just come over for the afternoon so they could get high, play some videos games - then hell, Jax had invited him to stay for dinner and ordered pizza. It was getting pretty late here and sneaking onto the ship late at night was a whole ordeal in itself.
“You can spend the night, if you want,” Jax said as he was helping him clean up.
“I mean, if it’s no trouble,” Behrad said. “You know Sara will never let me hear the end of it if she catches me coming back in the middle of the night.”
He laughed. “Yeah, she’d be on you for weeks. But it’s chill. I’ve got a sofa bed.”
“Oh.”
Jax looked up. “Oh?”
He realized he’d said that out loud. “Oh, I meant, oh, you do?” Behrad hurried with picking up the napkins that had fallen off the coffee table to hide his face. Great job, Tarazi.
“It’s not like my bed isn’t big enough for two.”
Standing up, he said, “It is?” God, why was he being so terrible at this? “Yeah. I can take the sofa bed, it’s fine.”
“B. I know you didn’t ditch a mission to hang out with me in Central City for no reason,” Jax said, grinning. “What’s a little bedsharing between not-so-platonic bros?”
“that was, by far, the stupidest thing you’ve ever done.” + firestoner
“That was, by far, the stupidest thing you’ve ever done,” Jax told him as he was drying his hair.
Behrad looked over. “Probably, more like top ten.”
“Okay, fair.”
In his lap sat the puppy that his boyfriend had jumped in the lake to save. He was fortunately dry, thanks to his use of the air totem as a hairdryer. Bud was curious, his tail thumping as he looked at the new pet.
It wasn’t every day that you had to save a dog from drowning while taking your other dog on a walk. They hadn’t been able to find her owner, and they couldn’t exactly leave her there.
“Are we going to keep her?” Behrad asked. His clothes were still drenched, but he’d only lost the button up he’d had over his graphic tee.
“I don’t know,” Jax said, scratching behind her ears. “What is up with your family and animals?”
He shrugged. “It’s an instinct.”
“Uh-huh.” He looked down at the dog. They couldn’t tell what breed she was, though Jax wouldn’t have been surprised if she was a mutt of some sort. “If we keep her, we should come up with a name.”
“Hm.” Behrad crossed her arms as he leaned against the counter. “How about Dana?”
The puppy barked, sitting up more in his lap. “Guess she likes it,” he said with a grin.
He came over to run a hand down her back. “Welcome to the family, Dana.”
