[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/w18T1S3.png[/img][/center]

[color=662d91]"I see you're still stealing the hearts of those around you en masse, beloved,"[/color] Lauren's mother replied in an accented drawl. Lauren, beaming, perked up with an [color=8882be]"Mhm!"[/color] as Costa Negasi took Ben's hand gently, shaking once--

[color=8882be]"[i]WEEEEEEEEE![/i]"[/color]

--before yanking him into an exuberant hug, Costa's arms reaching around him to grip her only daughter tightly. Lauren crowed and stretched her arms out to return the favor, while Ben squirmed in the center helplessly.

[color=662d91]"And she's [i]usually[/i] a fairly good judge of character, so however motley you may be, I'm glad she's brightened your lives the way she brightens mine."[/color]

Lauren made an illegible, fawning [color=8882be]"ugguawwshucksuguu"[/color] noise before dropping down off of Ben's back and yanking her captain away from her mother to embrace her without the middleman, sparing Cap only a brief glare as though it had been his idea to feel up her mom. 

[color=8882be]"So,"[/color] she said hopefully, [color=8882be]"did, uh...did Pops roll around?"[/color]

Costa looked at the rest of the team, then Lauren with a note of chagrin in her warm eyes, mouth quirked down sympathetically. Lauren seemed to deflate a little bit at the look.

[color=662d91]"Beloved...he wanted to be the first one to see you at Beacon, believe me..."[/color]

Lauren was quiet for a second, and then shrugged.

"Ehhh, he's probably out on the grind, I guess. I'll just give him a--"

[color=662d91]"--but we opted for a two-pronged assault,"[/color] Costa continued, an [i]all[/i] too familiar mischievous twinkle gleaming in her eyes. A sinister giggle grew in the back of her throat. [color=662d91]"i'm sure you're familiar with the tactic. A pretty face out front for distraction..."[/color]

"...while the handyman tinkers in the back?" Lauren finished incredulously, before her eyes widened in horror. "Oh...[color=8882be]oh, [i]fuck![/i] Mooooooms!"[/color]

Lauren whined loudly. Costa was beaming.

[color=8882be]"That's not [i]cooooooool[/i]! That's our dorm!"[/color]

[color=662d91]"If you haven't been robbing people, there will be nothing for him to find, will there, beloved?"[/color]

Lauren's mother reached out and ruffled her daughter's hair, just as her team had moments before. This time, Lauren looked positively paralyzed at the touch.

For Lauren had, in fact, taken possession of ten thousand lien, a designer purse, a custom tonfa, a series of clothes, and a promissory note claiming Ben's virginity by graduation - just in her first week of school. And somehow, no doubt through virtue of having raised Bastille's hellion themselves, the Negasis had figured it out in no time.