The Universe's Mixer

Had he not replaced all of his facial hair with fur, Hank would be fully bearded by now. He didn't want to admit that Baba's marriage to Eric had bothered him that much, but even with the invitation to the wedding he hadn't been able to make himself go, and he'd quietly immersed himself in a new phase of an old project; interactive holograms.

He'd barely left the lab for weeks, almost indifferent to the passing of time. He was absorbed in his science, and could block out everything else. The usual weight loss that accompanied these marathons was countered by his muscle and fur, but the food wrappers and coffee grounds overflowing in the trash were the same. As was the whirlwind of mid-project tools, parts, and notes that blanketed the whole lab.

Hank still didn't really notice this, too busy sitting cross legged in front of a floor device that was emitting a glow, holding a large touch screen control panel and typing in commands as he worked out what he wanted to create to test his final adjustments. He was dressed in nothing but sweats and a sleeveless undershirt, hair brushed straight back and glasses perched precariously on his nose.

He paused, then typed in some quick commands and smiled slightly as a Greek style column faded into view, roughly ten feet tall and a foot in diameter. He reached out into the light and put a finger to the side, smiling as he felt firm resistance. He withdrew his hand and started making modifications to the commands. The end was in sight, he was nearly there... that was always a reason to smile.

The dinner invitation from Lindsey had been unexpected but very welcome. With Ollie missing, Lois now had exactly one person in the City who didn't seem to mind her company. Considering that the holidays were coming up, this wasn't exactly a great feeling. Lois had tried and failed to be okay with being alone for most of her life. Being a military brat had meant moving around and not many long-term friendships and things with her dad had never been exactly warm. All the same, she still needed people. Her time in Smallville with the Kents and with Chloe so close by had been the start of a new chapter in her life-she had stopped feeling alone after that, which made this life in the City that much harder to take sometimes.

All the same, she was happy to have a destination on this particular day and even happier to have a really cute guy at said destination. She still wasn't sure what the nature of their friendship was, but she knew that things weren't exactly platonic on her end. And she didn't know many guys who offered to cook Thanksgiving dinner if... hey, when it came down to it, she'd never had a guy offer to cook her Thanksgiving dinner for any reason.

She showed up a few minutes late-there had been a little bit of a kitchen snafu-with a bottle of wine and a slightly blackened sweet potato casserole. Hey, she'd tried. A for effort, right?