Kirah

Avengers Academy: X of Swords ⚔️

---

---

---

---

Andy had helped decorate. She had never decorated for Hanukkah before. She hadn’t celebrated it before this year. All the families she had ever lived with had been Christmas families. A part of her was relieved. She didn’t feel like a Christmas person. Not when the last gift she had been given for Christmas had been the Drummonds adopting her. The paperwork had never been filed. She carried their name anyway. They had been her family for two years. It hurt to think about them, and Christmas made her think about them. Hanukkah didn’t. Hanukkah was a new holiday with a new family. She could make memories that didn’t hurt.

Magneto had spent the days teaching her. She was doing her best to soak it all in, and working on learning Hebrew. Reading was hard no matter the language, but for once she didn’t feel like scratching her eyeballs out when she tried to read.

Today was the last day of Hanukkah. Magneto was hosting a large gathering. Lots of mutants and lots of Jewish people. Andy felt a little awkward about it since she was just starting to practice it and basically everyone that would be here had been born into it. But she had thrown herself into it. She wanted to do the right things and say things the right way. She had seen the guest list and knew that Percy was coming.

Andy didn’t know Percy very well. They had a class together and had fought together in the Contest, but the team had been cobbled together at the last minute so they had never practiced together. He was also one of the youngest of the group. She knew he was dating Dorian, and had been there when Dorian had found the photo of Andy on Genosha. He had never said anything about it. Andy sort of hoped that Dorian would come to the party too. That would add a bit of a buffer between them. She didn’t want to avoid Percy, but wasn’t sure how to be friends with him. They had barely spoken to each other all year.

She didn’t have time to worry about it. People started to arrive and Andy greeted them as they came in.

Percy had just finished texting his mother that he had arrived safely in New Orleans. He had spent most of the nights of Hannukah celebrating with his mame and her extended family. He had missed the first three nights due to his time in rehab, but having transitioned from the inpatient portion to the outpatient component, he was now free to spend the holidays as he pleased. It helped that he had gone through a bit of a growth spurt with his teleports upon leaving CAGE, meaning that rather than wait for a flight to New Orleans, he had been able to travel somewhat instantaneously.

He was somewhat nervous as he approached the door to Magneto’s house. He wasn’t particularly certain why he had been invited, although he suspected Dorian had something to do with it. In his hands, he held a small casserole dish, covered up in tinfoil. His mame had insisted that he couldn’t show up to Hanukkah empty handed, and as much as he loved latkes, he hadn’t wanted to grate pounds of potatoes by hand that day. So instead, he had followed her instructions to make matzo crack - matzo crackers layered with chocolate and toffee, and sprinkled with salt. He hadn’t known if anyone was allergic to peanuts, so he left those aside.

He took a breath, checking to ensure that he looked presentable - he was wearing a fishermen’s sweater and dark slacks - and he knocked thrice on the door.

Andy opened the door, she had a presentable smile on her face, the one plastered and ready for whoever was on the other side. Once she realized it was Percy it grew.

”Hey Percy. Come on in. The kitchen is to the right through there. You can put the dish down anywhere you can find space for it.” There were several people already gathered, but they were older and talking among themselves. For as much as Andy saw herself as separate from her classmates because of the time difference in birth, she did not see herself as fitting in with the adults. The only adults she felt she fit in with were the ones from Genosha. Those were family.

”How’s your winter break been so far?”

Percy nodded, stepping inside and pausing for a moment. He saw that shoes had been placed off to the side of the entrance way, so he knelt down, setting the dish aside, and untied his shoes. He set them aside neatly, before picking up the dish and standing back up. He went into the kitchen as instructed, and set the container down on a free spot. Almost immediately, he spotted latkes, and his heart skipped a beat in anticipation. He really hoped they would be good. He’d be devastated otherwise.

At Andy’s question, he grimaced slightly. His winter break had been… eventful. The trip to Asgard and Jotunheim had been fun and exciting - his time in rehab, not so much. “Long,” he decided on. “How about yours? Are you and Gideon and America still together?”

”Yeah,” Andy smiled, surprised that Percy was aware of that. It had mostly happened at the Contest Celebration and he had been distracted because of that one new guy.

”We have a date planned. Gideon doesn’t text much, but mostly uses [snapchat/Marco polo]. I kind of like that over texts. You can see the person as they talk so you get facial and tonal information, and also I don’t have to try to read the jumble of a mess that texting is. I literally do not understand Danni when he texts me about 95% of the time. There are more numbers than full words.”

”I assume you and Dorian are still together otherwise I’d probably have heard about it...just through the walls.” She joked. ”Do the two of you have any dates planned, or anything?”

Percy was a little surprised - and curious - about this other service. He was very old fashioned when it came to communication, sending actual letters to his mothers, and then texts styled like letters to everyone else. But receiving facial and tonal information… albeit, he still struggled when it came to that interpretation, it was interesting. He might have to give it a try. “Could you show me some time?” Percy asked, before nodding vehemently at Andy’s assessment. “I realized that my powers have started to interpret Danni’s texting as its own unique language,” he shared. He didn’t know how to use emojis really, except for when it came to receiving messages from Danni - and sending ones back in response. Then it felt intrinsic, innate. But it was easily the hardest language he had ever operated in.

He blushed slightly at Andy’s mention of Dorian. “We’re going to a ski lodge soon - just the two of us.” His eyes lit up slightly, and he couldn’t help but smile. He was very much looking forward to the trip. He still needed to figure out winter clothes, as he had grown up his entire life in California, and he’d never even really seen snow before this winter, but he could manage. It was a problem he had been procrastinating but he still had time.

”Oh! A ski trip sounds fun. I skied when I lived in Colorado. It’ll be one of the greatest work outs you ever do. You’ll be super sore after.” Andy paused, ”Wait, have you skied before? Don’t want to tell you about it if you have done it. I know there are some places not far from here, but when I lived in California I lived in San Francisco so I never saw snow then. Not till I lived in Colorado.” She was glad the conversation went to a topic that she felt comfortable with. She could talk about snow. Andy had caught how excited he was about the trip so she figured it would be a good topic.

Percy shook his head slightly. He wasn’t an incredibly athletic person. He wouldn’t have picked skiing himself - it was mostly the prospect of spending some time alone with Dorian that excited him. “I’d never seen snow before this winter,” he explained. “My mame is from New York, but we always went to visit her family when it was warmer.”

”Okay, one of the most important things you should know is to wear sunscreen. It seems dumb, but the snow reflects the sun and you can get the worst sunburn. Make sure you drink water and you have to stretch before and after skiing. Trust me. The before is important so you don’t mess up any of your muscles, and the after is good because you’ll recover faster. No offense but you don’t seem like the work out type.” She had never seen Percy while she was training. She suspected the heaviest thing he picked up was books. Though she had seen him carrying around the team when pulling rescues.

”When you teleport, do you keep the movement you had before teleporting? I realized I’ve never seen you moving and teleporting at the same time? And I suddenly imagined you doing that to avoid a tree.

Percy’s eyes widened a bit, as Andy started to info dump on him - but then he nodded, taking the information to heart. He hadn’t considered that he would need sunscreen at the ski lodge. Snow seemed like the opposite of summer and sun to him. As for the issues about muscles, he didn’t foresee much of a problem here - he didn’t really have any muscles. “I don’t know if I will actually ski. I might just read at the lodge while Dorian skis,” he admitted. “Hmm. I’m not sure. I would imagine that I would maintain the movement.” He hadn’t done very many tests with it. Most of his practice with controlling his teleports had been stationary, with a few exceptions that were… somewhat difficult to recall the finer details of.

”Hmm, probably best to not test that while on skis then. Unless you do it in a safe spot. Probably good to know for battlefield maneuvering though.” Andy smiled. Her mind off thinking about all the ways the teleport could be used if his movement was sustained, or even more interestingly if it wasn’t.

”And that’s fair. Do you know how to make hot chocolate? I bet if you make it for Dorian while he is skiing he’d appreciate the hot cup when he gets back. It feels really good to drink something hot when you’re half frozen from being in the snow.”

Percy nodded again. He’d gone through a bit of a growth spurt with his teleports, so to a certain extent his powers felt brand new. Weeks ago, he hadn’t been able to teleport across campus - and now, he was able to go across the country. The largest change he’d noticed was that he was starving all of the time - the calories his powers were burning had increased exponentially. There were a lot of things that he needed to test, and even more things that he needed to relearn.

“Erm, yes. I do.” And then, a sudden wave of doubt hit him. He’d always made hot chocolate by using a mix and some microwaved milk. Did Andy mean something fancier than that - making it from scratch? Did Dorian expect that from him, if he wasn’t going to be skiing himself? “From a mix, I mean. I don’t - I don’t really know how to cook or bake,” he admitted. He only knew how to make a few family recipes - hence the matzo crack he had brought.

”That’s fine as long as you aren’t making coffee.” Andy hoped she was right. ”Dorian will appreciate the thought. He can be a bit... epicurean at times.” A new word. Andy had committed to learning a new word a day and that had been a recent one. She wasn’t sure if she said it right.

”But if you add a bit extra to it, it is hard to tell. I’ll be honest, I'm not good at cooking or baking either. Jamie had been teaching me some, he was a great cook.” Her heart panged a little and her smile faded. Andy cleared her throat.

”Just use the mix and add a little cinnamon and nutmeg to it. That’ll make it great. And maybe he’ll make a Cafe Borgia for you.”

Percy nodded again. Coffee was something he knew how to make. He had been drinking coffee since he was small, and while his standards had been somewhat high before he’d begun dating Dorian, they had only risen since then. It helped that Dorian was able to import the beans directly - and that he had access to high quality equipment in his dorm room. Percy had been thoroughly spoiled. Of course, his attention was more piqued by the word Andy had used. Epicurean.

“I didn’t know you knew about Epicurus.” He leaned forward slightly, his eyes sparkling again. He had already been surprised with Leah’s interest in mythology and here was Andy, referring to Greek philosophers! “Have you read On Nature? It’s on my reading list for the new year. I’ve only read references to it so far, so I’m excited to dig in on the primary text. It’s a shame we don’t have more of his writings still. I could lend you my copy once I am done, if you would like?”

Panic shot through Andy. She did not know who Epicurus was. She also struggled to read. Percy was leagues ahead of her when it came to reading. She regretted using the word and now she was going to have to explain.

”Oh, does it not mean... someone who has high standards for food? Like a food snob? The book I am using to learn new words had it. I didn’t realize it was after someone.” The book in question, 1100 Words You Should Know, was sitting on her bed.

”Honestly, I’m... I don’t read really well. I don’t even know the book you’re talking about.”

Percy’s face fell. “Oh…” He was silent for a moment, as the thrill slowly left him. He had already been so hopeful, so ready to have intellectual discussions and debates about Epicurus with one of his peers. Talking about Greek philosophers with Dorian never really lasted - he was far too sexy when doing it, and Percy wasn’t able to help himself. And while he could always have these scholarly debates with his mame, it wasn’t quite the same as with a peer.

But then, he frowned slightly. Andy said she didn’t read well. He couldn’t imagine a world without reading - literature was his first love. Andy didn’t deserve that. “Can I help you?” he then proposed. “There are audio books, if the issue is reading the text. And if the issue is the words themselves, you can select books appropriate to your reading level and train up to higher levels. You’ll learn more if you’re interested in what you are reading, I think. I could read something with you.”

Relief flooded through Andy. ”I think I’m dyslexic.” She admitted. Andy had been looking into it since Thanksgiving and was now pretty convinced that that was what was wrong with her. ”I haven’t really done audiobooks yet. But I’ve been trying to read better. Here follow me.” The guests coming in had lulled down. She led Percy to her room. On her bed was the 1100 words to know book, a bookmark about a third of the way through it. The Lightning Thief its bookmark at about half way through, was on her nightstand.

”I never really realized what was wrong. I just couldn’t read well. I’m working on the vocabulary thing,” she gestured to the vocab book. ”But finding books that interest me has been tough. I like the Percy Jackson stuff, it feels a little... young for me. But because of those books I learned about dyslexia and I looked it up. But otherwise I don’t even know where to start.” She took a slow breath and then started talking again.

”I know you don’t know a lot about me. But before coming here. I hadn’t attended the same school for a whole year since I was eight. This isn’t the longest I’ve been at a school, but it is getting there. I barely was at any school longer than two years. And after... After I ran away from Colorado I went to New York and I didn’t go back to school. I was home schooled a bit during that time, but I struggled a lot. I just don’t have the education. Hell I was surprised they didn’t put me in more remedial classes.”

Percy followed Andy back to her room, and he picked up the books with interest. He always had a soft spot for the Percy Jackson series - he shared a name with the title character, after all. The earlier works were more cohesive than the later ones, and the continuity issues in the Sun and the Star had driven him mad, but… He could understand Andy seeing herself in them. Nico di Angelo had been a large part of his gay awakening.

He frowned again as Andy described her lack of education. Education had been such a priority for his mothers, he’d had to attend Hebrew school on the weekend. He couldn’t imagine the absence of it - and the more he thought about it, the more it upset him. He knew Margaret Carter was focused on making heroes not scholars, but they had so clearly failed Andy. He gripped the books a little tighter.

He didn’t know how to help someone with dyslexia read, but he knew he could find out. “I can’t believe the school isn’t helping you. It’s the point of a school. To educate people!” he set the books down and started pacing. “The way I see it, we have several options. The first is to ask Sabine if she can give you memories of the education you missed. This is the easy path, but lacks in integrity. Hmm. No. It won’t do. If we are going to do something, we are going to do it properly. The second is to make the school do their goddamn job and teach you. We would need to show a united front with your guidance counselor, possibly threaten that you are going to leave for Xavier’s - they won’t want to lose a contest champion. But they have failed you so utterly I would not give them a second chance. The third option is we devise a curriculum ourselves and work through it after classes. Hmm. We would need to call in assistance, as I have treatment for now. But once that concludes, my time can be yours.” He then stopped pacing, and took out his phone, sending off a text rapidly.

Mame (translated from Yiddish)

Dear Mame,

I have a friend who has been utterly failed by the disaster that is the current education system. She is dyslexic and at an eighth grade reading level, possibly lower. Would it be possible to receive copies of the supplemental education plan you had crafted for me? I would like to adapt them for her.

Love,
Percy

Andy was a little surprised at how vehement Percy was. He was so upset at how much the school had failed him. ”Nemo always gave me extra time,” she said. Nemo had been the only teacher who seemed to be aware of Andy’s problem. The only one who had done anything to help her.

”Thank you, Percy. I do not want to do it the easy way. And if I changed schools I’d probably come here to Strange, since they do magic and my magic studies are... not very cohesive yet. Baby steps I guess.” She shrugged. ”Also, it’d be kind of weird, because could Sabine even give me memories like that? All my knowledge would be her knowledge. Right?” Andy wasn’t sure how that would work, but she wanted to learn it herself. She was happy to have help, but wanted to do the work.

Andy did not miss that Percy had said something about treatment. She decided to not pry. She had just opened herself up to him, but he was a much more closed system. Andy would let him tell her, or she’d piece it together eventually. She didn’t need to know, not unless he wanted to talk about it.

Percy grimaced slightly as Andy brought up Nemo. He didn’t want to speak ill of the dead, but he had never liked the time travel studies professor. He hadn’t shed a tear when they learned the news of his passing. But it seemed he was the only one who held that opinion. And he was not keen to learn who Margaret Carter would dig up to be his replacement.

“I don’t know if she could transfer them permanently, but essentially yes. You would have a copy of her knowledge, for better or for worse. It would likely not be without flaws. But I agree. This way is better.” He then started to pace again, only to pause as he realized what else Andy had said. “Would you leave for Strange Academy? They’d accept you. They’d have to.”

Andy wrinkled her nose. ”No, I think it is better to work for it.” She considered what Percy was asking. Would she leave AA to go to another school? Max taught at Strange Academy, but so did Agatha and that old witch made her nervous.

”Percy, I am from Genosha. I am seventeen years out of date. I spent the last four months trying to figure out this world and the people in it. Dorian and Danni and the rest of the team are basically the only people I know, except people from Genosha. I don’t want to transfer. I would have to figure out how to make friends all over again and I wouldn’t have Dorian dragging me into those friendships. It’d be a nightmare. I just got my feet under me, and that is with Zari leaving me like that.” She paused, knowing that Percy and Zari were friends too. ”If you think forcing the school’s hand is necessary and me threatening to leave to go to Strange Academy is what will do it, then alright, but I don’t want to.” She had seen Percy’s face, she didn’t know his relationship with Nemo but she sort of wished that Nemo was still around. He probably would have helped back her if she went to Coulson.

Percy nodded. He knew of Andy’s history with Genosha - none of the sordid details, but the rough scope of it all. He’d been there with Dorian when they had found the photograph of her and Zari at the museum - one where they hadn’t visibly aged a day. He bit his lip for a moment, considering what to say to her. They hadn’t really spoken about Zari and the others who had left so abruptly. She had supposedly been his friend, but Percy could not remember the last time he had a meaningful conversation with her - the last time he felt that friendship was made of more than the friendship between their parents. “I imagine she was just as good a girlfriend to you as she was a friend,” he said softly. “You seem happier now.”

“But I don’t think we need to force the school’s hand. Primarily because I doubt they would stick to a new routine for long. No, if you will let me tutor you, I will.” He then paused for a moment, his eyebrows furrowing. “We might as well be strangers to each other. I understand if you do not want my help.”

Andy let out a soft sigh at Percy’s comment. ”It isn’t just that that changed.” She shifted uncomfortably. A lot of what had changed had been giving Selene to Max and taking that weight off of her shoulders.

”But I do feel a bit freer. I’m sorry she wasn’t a good friend for you. She told me about you and then we never hung out. I expected the three of us would, it just never happened.” Andy cleared her throat. ”I would appreciate it if you would tutor and help me, Percy. That would mean a lot to me. You’re probably one of the smartest people I know.”

He smiled somewhat bitterly. It was a topic he did not want to dwell on much more. Some things were better left in the past. He would rather look towards the future - to think more on how he could help Andy to make up for lost time. “We can start after school in… I believe my treatment schedule shouldn’t interfere by mid February. Until then, I can meet with you on weekends. I’ve messaged my mame if she has some resources we can use - she used to give me supplemental exercises for my schoolwork.”

At her compliment, however, Percy shook his head. A few months ago, he would have accepted it, and readily told her how right her observation was. “Mm. The secret to intelligence is being stubborn,” he argued. “And I’ve been told I’m a stubborn ass.”

Andy shifted, the mention of treatment again, was he okay? She bit her lip wondering if she should broach the subject. Andy decided not to.

”The weekends are fine.” She thought that it wasn’t just being stubborn, but it was access. Something she hadn’t had a lot of.

”We should head back out now. Dad’ll be wondering where I am if too many people show up without me answering the door.” She smiled and headed back out. ”Thank you again. I didn’t know what to do really. I saw the vocab book at a book kiosk but that is only going to help so much.”

He shook his head, a sly smile gracing his face. “Don’t thank me yet. You’ll need to learn Hebrew, too.”

---

Dorian had been waiting outside the door for a few minutes now. He had a long dark coat on, beige turtleneck, black pants, and knee high leather boots. His hair was well coiffed, a small baby curl near his sideburns, and light pink blush that mimicked a fair skinned person in cold weather, coloring his cheeks and the tip of his nose with frosty highlights and shiny lip gloss. Snow lightly dusted his hair and clothing, having just come from his house that was always enchanted to have snowfall inside during Christmas times. Dorian looked to his left and right, standing nervously before he knocked again.

”’ello?”

Dorian looked down at his offered gift of food for the party. Would they like his Walnut Rugelach? Would they think he hadn't tried hard enough? Or worse, made them bad. Danni had been helping him try and perfect the recipe, teaching him methods to make them even though at times it seemed he just wanted to make them for him. But Dorian had insisted he had to make them himself. Around his arm was the strap to a bag that held gifts.

Andy heard the knock at the door and winced. She hoped she hadn’t missed someone. Or at least that it hadn’t been too long. She dashed to the door and opened it. The fake smile broke into a big genuine smile.

”Dorian!” Andy pulled him into an awkward hug around the items he held. ”Food goes into the kitchen, find any open counter space.” She pointed in the direction of the kitchen. There was an assortment of people gathered there chattering. They had overflown into other rooms. It wasn’t a massive party, but Andy couldn’t have identified more than half the people there.

”Percy is here. We were just chatting.” Andy was a bit embarrassed to explain what they had been talking about since she hadn’t told Dorian about her issues with reading yet. He was bound to find out though. ”He’s going to start tutoring me.”

Percy appeared behind Andy a moment later, and he didn’t need blush to have his cheeks flush the moment he set eyes on Dorian. He had become so accustomed to seeing his boyfriend every day at school, and even then he was still routinely mesmerized by him. He was silent for a moment, his eyes sweeping over Dorian’s form from top to bottom. With the snow dusting his hair, he wanted nothing more than to run his hands through it, to gently tug on each and every curl…

He cleared his throat slightly, trying not to be so easily flustered. It hadn’t been that long since they’d last seen each other, even if it felt like 300 years, right down to the day. “Happy Hanukkah,” Percy said softly.

Dorian hugged Andy back enthusiastically. Normally he would have attempted to float the dish and bags away to give her a proper hug, but he was worried he'd mess it all up and have nothing to give them. ”Perce, did you rope Andy into one of your discussions about Whoreowhodawatty from Ancient Grease, Andy you don't ‘ave to placate ‘im really im so sorry.” He added as he stepped in and realized shoes were neatly placed beside the door. His boots took long enough to get in, getting out would require help if he wanted to do it before food was dropped off. ”Sorry, didn't realize no shoes. Uh, Perce mind takin’ t'is to t'e kitchen for me? I'll meet you t'ere after these boots are off.”

”Not quite.” Andy laughed. ”I think I'm dyslexic. Also, my education prior to coming here was weak. I expect I'll probably learn some things about Greece. That isn't the reason for him tutoring me.”

”Happy Hanukkah. Have you had a good winter break so far?”

For a split second, Percy felt embarrassed. He had been really excited to talk with Andy about Epicurus. Did people find it annoying when he wanted to talk about Greek philosophers…? Did Dorian dislike it? But the gnawing shame was quickly replaced with annoyance, as he realized that his boyfriend was butchering the words on purpose. It irritated him to no end when Dorian did that. Especially for words that he used that sounded similar - the meaning became totally distorted thanks to Percy’s powers and he had to make a conscious effort to focus on what Dorian had said, only to be upset all over again.

He clenched his jaw. “It’s Herodotus,” Percy corrected, before he took the container from Dorian and headed to the kitchen.

Once Percy had left, Dorian placed the gifts onto the floor and knelt down to begin undoing his shoes. ” ‘e is so easy to rile up sometimes. I made some Walnut Rugelach, ‘eard t'at its meant to represent the oil for t'e lights. I ‘ope t'ats ok?” He undid one shoe before standing up and decidedly just phasing out of the second one. ”Dyslexia huh? I never really understood ‘ow t'at worked out…but my breaks been good so far. Been doin' some readin’ , exercising, been more on my socials now t'at I get t'e chance to be. Chat ‘as been crazy wit’ t'e fact t'at im datin’ Percy. T'ey knew somet'in was up when some of my dorm streams ‘ad uh…odd backgrounds. T'ese snoops spot a speck of dust from a mile away if it proves t'ier t'eories. What about you?”

”Basically the letters jumble up and it sometimes takes me way too long to figure out what it actually means.” Andy shrugged. She had always struggled with reading and wouldn't have been able to put it into words until recently. ”Break has been good so far. I've been here mostly.” Andy had gone out a bit but she was just enjoying being home. She still had her date with Gideon coming up.

”Also don't be mean to him, he is trying to find something to talk about. Okay. So socials. I have a Snikt! And it blew up with followers but I haven't even posted anything. I don’t know how they found me.” She also had the super hero chat thing but she hadn't logged into since day one. She was a little afraid of what she'd find there now.

”How are people supposed to manage all of this?” she felt like she needed a PR person just to deal with the wild amount of semi-stalking that had started. If she had known that was going to happen she wouldn't have fought in the dang contest.

”Its easier to manage if you started before you knew.” Dorian laughed. ”Green screens, fake backgrounds, whole fake rooms sometimes, never use your real name or give any indication where you may live, anyt'in’ t’at'll dox you really. Even t'en t'e biggest fans may catch somet'in you missed and suddenly its a whole t'in. People noticed I didn’t wear my gamin’ sweater two streams in a row, I tried to play it off but every one found out I ‘ad a boyfriend t'en. Question t'en was, who?” He began to make his way over towards the Kitchen. ”And I'm just teasin’ ‘im. ‘onestly I love when ‘e talks to me about Greek ‘eroes and myths. Even if we ‘ave differin’ opinions on some of t'em.”

In the kitchen, Percy had done his best to make room for the Rugelach - and had taken some time to sneak a latke quickly. If they were all gone before he’d have a chance to grab one, he genuinely may have cried. He overheard the very end of Dorian’s conversation, and he was facing away from the kitchen entrance, smiling slightly.

”Well I haven't posted anything still.” She pulled her phone out and opened Snikt! Her profile was empty, no photo, but they username was Andy123456. The follower count had hit 10k.

”At least no one can comment, but I have a stupid amount of DMs I haven't even read any of them.”

The food in the kitchen smelled great. Andy's stomach rumbled. She glanced around and saw people had plates of food. She had probably missed something but at least it meant she could grab some food too.

”I'm going to get a plate. You should too.” She grabbed a plate, it was metal, and filled with bits from everything. She didn't know most of the dishes, but she was willing to try.

”First mistake was leavin’ your DMs open. We'll make it so only close friends can message you, t’at'll cut down on ‘ow much traffic you get.” Dorian made his way around the corner and kissed Percy on the cheek as he grabbed himself a plate. The food looked amazing, and smelled even better. He ensured to grab at least one of everything, including his own dish to guarantee it came out alright.

Percy tilted his face so that way as Dorian went in to kiss him on the cheek, he got his lips instead. He then got himself a plate - he’d been eating more calories since his time in CAGE, and he grabbed a separate smaller plate just for the sour cream and applesauce. “The secret is to have someone else deal with it all for you,” he advised Andy. “Dorian handles mine. I’m not sure what he posts on it,” he then added with a shrug. He was about to get himself some of the brisket and a jelly doughnut when he paused, eyeing Andy’s and Dorian’s plates.

“Unacceptable,” he shook his head, putting his plates down. “Your latke to sour cream - or applesauce - ratio is atrocious.” He then spooned more onto Dorian’s plate, before waiting for a moment to see if Andy would also let him fix hers.

Andy laughed and nodded at the offer of more sour cream.
”I didn’t even know that was a setting. Do I hire someone for that? I don't think either of my girlfriends do social media.” She frowned. Did America? Gideon didn't seem like the type. Though Andy did know she had Grindher. ”Well America might because she already has a couple years of winning the Contest.”

She bit into some food and melted a little. It was delicious. She was very excited to eat all of this new stuff.

Dorian scooped the sour cream off his plate and onto Andy's before Percy could give her more. ”No its jist a settin’ I'll get it all set up after if you want me to. Maybe even show you how to make some edits.” He pulled his phone out and pulled up Percy’s account, scrolling to an edit he'd made of them with Percy being Hades and Dorian Persephone. Percy's images were ones pulled from throughout the year, times Dorian was able to catch him unaware of the camera in dark or broody looks, especially when reading. Dorians were more curtailed, blushed cheeks that accentuated his eyes, plum colored backgrounds and pomegranate seeds, the red of which were used to stain his lips a natural purple pink. All of it playing to a love song about the two gods. ”Good right? Doubt Percy's actually looked at ‘is account to see t'is one.”

Percy huffed slightly as Dorian removed the sour cream - it was a key and vital component of the latke experience! But his protests immediately died as Dorian pulled out his phone, scrolling through what he had posted to Percy’s account. He hadn’t looked at the account very often. Its entire creation had been Dorian’s suggestion, and while he had used it at first to look at photos and videos of Dorian before the two of them had started dating, he received the content he was looking for directly now. The explosion of interest in their lives on social media following the contest had made it seem overwhelming as well.

“That’s what you’ve been posting?” he asked, a little stunned. “… Can I see that again?”

Andy whistled at the video.

”That’s good.” She was surprised. Andy hadn't spent a lot of time on Snikt! But some of the edits she had seen had been impressive. Basically what she would have considered professional quality.

”Please fix it.” Andy asked Dorian. She didn’t use the app because of how frustrating the incoming messages had become. Andy had been tempted to delete the account. She wondered if it was too late.

Dorian had caught sight of Andy's ‘account’ ”We're skimmin’ t'e inbox, seein’ if anyt'in of import is t'ere t'en nukin’ t'e account and startin' new. T'at means a better ‘andle t'at is more t'is timeline.” He teased. He closed his phone and lifted Percy's jaw up with one finger. ”Drool over t'e food not me, im starvin’ right now.”

Percy rolled his eyes at Dorian, and shifted his posture slightly. “I’m not drooling,” he protested. “I just wanted to double check your work for misconceptions,” he protested. “Fair warning on the handle - he made my gaming account Whoredotus.”

”That's got to be better than Andy123456.” Andy shrugged.

”Anything good in the DMs?”

DELETE. DELETE. DELETE. Oh? ”Actually youre DMs aren't ‘alf bad. Tons of praise, lots of nice comments, some offers for sponsorships, collabs, fights?” Dorian did have to delete a message that said ‘Break me like one of your French girls.’ ”Also Andy gets to ‘ave a cool ‘andle Perce. Somet'in t'at matches ‘er style while givin’ anonymity.” He pressed a Latka to his lips, taking a small bite of it as he thought. A few chews later ”🌩Rhapsody🌩”

Percy had already finished his own latkes, and Dorian had been teasing him earlier, so… he took a quick step forward, going to bite the latke out from Dorian’s grip - only for his boyfriend to phase out of the way, leaving Percy to pass through harmlessly. He huffed slightly. “Rhapsody? Do you sing?” he asked Andy.

”Not really. Like I can, but I wouldn't go on stage for it except karaoke.”

She hadn't expected a nice DM box, which was why she had never really opened it. Andy remembered to never read the comments because that was a dangerous place.

”Wait did you make a new account or just change the name?”

”Making a new account. Keep this one as a fake basically, already shut off t'e ability to get more DMs. T'ough you're not far off about t'e singin’ bit Perce. I was tryin’ to t'ink of names for ‘er account, somet'in to do wit’ lightnin’ or fightin’ and originally t'ought Queen of Lightnin’ or Lightnin’ Queen. But t'at is bot’ bad and too on t'e nose. But it reminded me of t'is ‘it song from Andy's time! Pa sings it all t'e time, its by a retro band named Queen, called Bohemian Rhapsody, and in t'at song t'ey sing ‘T'underbolts and lightnin’ very very frightenin’ ‘ Hence, Rhapsody. I know, I'm a genius.” Dorian said before taking a bite from his Latka in admiration to his own self. ”Also t'ese are delicious, Perce why dont you ever make me these?”

Percy raised an eyebrow. “Do you want me to cook for you?”

”If it's t'is, t'en yes.”

Andy snorted at their exchange. ”Better him than me. I can technically cook. But it is the bare essentials of food. Jamie was teaching me.” she frowned, this was the second time she had mentioned him.

”Okay you do realize that Queen is from the 1980s. I wasn't alive yet. I was born in 2004. I'm younger than Google. Gen Z not X or boomer.”

“You’re two years older than Taylor’s debut album. Hmm,” he was about to ask Andy what that was like, growing up in the Swiftie golden age, but he remembered Dorian’s comment about his urge to infodump so he held his tongue.

Andy couldn’t help but to wince and groan. She did not like pop music and Taylor Swift had been the goddess of pop music growing up. It was everywhere. She hated it. She had fortunately, living with the Drummonds, been able to avoid all of that as they were into punk rock, a lot of Irish punk at that. Andy had adored that type of music. It wasn’t until Gideon had told her that Eva and Harry were also pop stars. She had known Harry since the MU days, and Eva was like... an aunt now. She was going to have to learn to put up with some of it to an extent.

”You were born closer to t'e 80's t'an now, besides I read t'at it was super popular in your time.” Dorian huffed. He'd noticed the slip up of a name, a frown, and immediate change of subject. But he wasn't about to press for it, after all it must've been someone from a time before all this, someone she couldn't go back to see. ”So t'at makes it what? 21 years before she became a massive flop?” Dorian teased.

Andy opened her mouth to contest Dorian’s math, but as she did Andy realized he was right. There was about 24 years between her birth and 1989. And she’d be 34 if she had gone the normal slow route. “Wait, she flopped?” Andy redirected. “What happened?”

Percy saw red. He was a diehard Swiftie, and yes, he did prefer her works pre the Life of a Showgirl - he could even stomach the Tortured Poets Society. But his boyfriend calling Taylor a massive flop was still unacceptable. “She’s allowed a bad album! With her output, it’s bound to happen! And Travis Kelce wasn’t doing her any favors as a muse - and not to forget, the sudden reemergence of conservatism and the existential threat of Sabrina Carpenter it’s no wonder that album was terrible! She was doing her best!”

”Huuuuuge flop Andy. Which was embarrassin’ given some of t'e shader t'ings she did pre t'at album t'at re-emerged when t'at album came out. Honnêtement, I t'ink she fell for t'e pressure of competition t'at she didn't ‘ave before. A new Supreme rose wit' Sabrina while t'e faux Showgirl tried to be someone she was not.” Dorian shrugged before finally trying the Latke with some applesauce, audibly enjoying the new flavour combination.

Andy didn’t know who Sabrina Carpenter was. She made an assumption that she was another pop star and left it there. A part of Andy was pleased that Taylor had fallen off her pedestal. She kept that to herself as well.

”Alright then. I'll stick with my punk rock,” she shrugged. There was always a risk of nazis but punks hated them so kicked them out... violently of their spaces.

”Anyway. How about we go sit down. Instead of standing blocking the latkas?” She grabbed another one adding it to her plate.

Percy wanted to protest and defend Taylor - but that era was a bad look. It wasn’t one he could even defend against. He listened to albums from Debut to Midnights, and nothing beyond them. It was heartbreaking to see how badly things had turned out for his favorite pop star. And he imagined Dorian was trying to egg him on, so he huffed and nodded at Andy’s suggestion. He grabbed a few more latkes as well, before waiting for those two to lead the way to where they’d be sitting.

”Ooooo wait, I know a but of Punk Rock, like T'e Mighty Mighty CrabJoys.” Dorian said as he began to hum the lyrics their theme as he danced a bit behind Andy, swiping a latke off his boyfriend's plate instead of grabbing one for himself. ”Oh and Iggy Pop. Which you'd t'ink would be pop?”

Percy shot Dorian a glare.

Andy gave Dorian a flat look. ”I am talking about bands like Agent Orange, which while a terrible name, has great music.” Andy found a spot where all three of them could sit, and she could keep an eye on the door.

”How did we end up talking about music like this? You were freeing me from the chaos that is a public Snikt! account.”

“Hm. Dorian suggested an account for you named after a song you weren’t a contemporary to, leading us to discuss music,” Percy summarized. He took a seat next to Andy.

”Whats wit’ t'at look? Are t'ey not punk?” Dorian crossed his arms, sitting next to Percy as he dropped his Latke that he stole back onto Percy's plate.

”Thank you, Percy. Iggy Pop, yes. The Mighty Crabjoys are a fake band from a dumb movie. I'm going to make you a mixtape.” Andy hadn't made one since Ash had taught her how. Both ways on a CD burner and the way Ash had grown up doing it with a cassette tape recording from the radio. But she'd make a CD for Dorian with some good music on it.

“Do people still make mix tapes?” Percy asked. He put the stolen latke back on Dorian’s plate, along with a second one. He then rested his left hand on Dorian’s knee.

Dorian actually quite liked that movie, he'd even scoured the internet for a real vintage shirt from that era that said ‘Punk is Cool’ on it with a small emblem in the hem of it. Granted he never went ‘full punk’ in the sense of how Andy dressed, but he'd wanted to a few times. ”Most people just make Playlist but I'm sure I can get a CD to work just fine. Oooo or if you want a cassette tape! T'en I can ‘ave my pa make me a walkin'man wit' matchin’ ‘eadphones. It'll be a whole vibe!” He grabbed the latke Percy put back onto his plate, taking a bite and smiling before leaning in more on Percy.

”Is Spotify still around?” Andy wondered if she could still access her account she had used back when living with the Drummonds. That had all the best music.

”Huh, I wonder if that old email still exists” she murmured to herself.

”Play list, mix tape whatever you want to call it. I'll make you one so you can listen to some good punk rock.” Andy chewed on some of her food.

”So tell me about your ski trip you've got planned.” She smiled brightly.

Percy nodded slightly. He hadn’t been one to make playlists, usually listening to a single album at a time. He’d taken a break from Taylor lately, and had been shifting into Harry Simmons. His curiosity had been piqued when they ran into the pop star during the contest, and he found himself really enjoying some of Simmons’ earlier work. “Erm, Dorian knows more of the details than I do. I’m not quite sure where exactly we’re going,” he admitted. His boyfriend had done most of the planning for the trip - whereas Percy’s free time had been consumed with family commitments and rehab.

”Well…it was gonna be a surprise, but I guess I can tell you a little bit about it. We are ‘ended to t'e ‘imalaya's. T'ere's a wonderful resort t'ere oh and Tigers! Bagel Tigers!!!! And Blue Goats, or sheep, or somet'in’ t'at goes baaaa.”

Andy raised an eyebrow. Was there skiing there? Her only knowledge of the Himalayas was where mount Everest was. She could be wrong about that.

”Do you mean Bengal Tigers?” She was certain he didn't mean bagel as that was a type of food.

“Are you hungry, sweetheart?” Percy asked. “There are some bagels in the kitchen, I can go grab you some?”

”Oh is it Bengal? T'at's weird. Why would t'ey call t'em t'at? Eit'er way t’ey're sooo cute! I wanna pet one while we are t'ere.”

”I don’t know why they are called that. Also, those bagels are the bomb. There is a whole set up for it with fish and stuff.” She had never had bagels and lox before. But now that she had she was going to have that whenever it was the option.

”Is petting them allowed?”

Percy then blinked. He’d been so focused on the bagel vs bengal of it all, he hadn’t really processed properly what Dorian had said. They were going to the Himalayas? They were going to the Himalayas! He tried to bite back a grin, but he couldn’t help it, beaming from ear to ear. “I don’t think a rule against petting the tigers would stop him,” he said with a slight chuckle. “He’s too persistent.” He scooched a little closer to Dorian, and tapped his arm twice, a subtle request for him to put his arm around him.

”I Love a good bagel spread! Oh and schmere! I'll ‘ave to snag some in a bit. T'ere's t'is great bodega in New York, always makes my favorite bagel, t'ough t'e breakfast sammie I like is in a different part of New York which feels a bit like cheatin’ but t'is was I also get to pet twice as many Bodega cats!” Dorian frowned for a moment, his eyes wandering around the room as he realized that in all the excitement of the Contest and Christmas break, he hadn't had a chance to go and see Goose. He felt as Percy tapped him, putting his arm around him almost instinctively as he tried to figure out how he'd make it up to that wonderful fluff ball. ”It's just a small pet, can't be too bad right? I'm not ‘urtin’ t'e tiger.”

Andy tilted her head. She was midway into a bite. Was Dorain joking? Or did he not know what a tiger was?

”Dorian, I have to know... Do you know how big a tiger is?” She had never seen a bengal tiger in person. She had been to a zoo. Andy doubted that Max hadn’t ever taken them to a zoo at least... right? Or did he have some moral reason not to? She could understand that. But suddenly Andy was very concerned that Dorian was going to try to pet a very wild creature. He’d probably be fine, just phase out and all would be good, but she still didn't think it was a good decision. Even if he wouldn’t suffer any apparent consequences.

”Oh yeah! T'ey're t'is big roughly.” Dorian approximated the size of an actual tiger's height. ”T'ey ‘ad some in t'e San Fran Zoo, I t'ink in Disney World too? But I've only seen t'em be'ind glass or cages and I wanna see one up close and no bars. Just t'em and me in t'e wild. Why do you ask?”

Andy let out a small sigh of relief.
”I don't think the wild ones will let you pet them. If you've never been scratched by a cat you might not realize how dangerous they can be. People have been killed by large cats. And these are some of the largest if not the largest cats. The ones in zoos are trained and used to people. The ones on the wild might just want to eat you. Also are probably protected by the government.”

Ordinarily, Percy would have sided with Andy on this one, and dismiss the desire to pet a wild tiger as stupid. However, it wasn’t just anyone who had this urge. It was Dorian. Sweet, beautiful, stupid Dorian. So instead of ridiculing him, Percy sat there in thought for a moment. “What if you approach the tiger while phased?” he suggested. “Minimal risk of injury, and you can get as close as you like. Hmm. Can you possess animals, Dorian? Could you become the tiger?”

Dorian couldn't help but laugh at their concern. Sure Tigers were large creatures, dangerous even, but he'd managed to win over another feline far more dangerous than a tiger. ”Guys, I t'ink if I can get Goose to love me I can get a tiger to do t'e same. And Goose is way scarier t'an any ol tiger. ‘is scratches lead to permanent damage and ‘is bite can swallow a tiger whole. I'm not worried about an oversized ‘ouse cat. And yes Perce, Animals are able to be possessed by me, t'ough I usually prefer not to.”

“Do you mean… a goose or something named Goose?” Percy asked, frowning slightly. He knew that geese could be pretty vicious, but he didn’t imagine they were any more terrifying than a tiger. “Emus are far more horrifying than geese. Did you know that Australia waged a war against them in the 1930s and ostensibly lost?”

”Not a goose, The Goose. ‘e's an alien species t'at is also just t'e most adorable t'ing! Oh wait ‘old on!.” Dorian pulled out his phone and showed his new phone background. He always had last Christmas's image of him and Goose together as his wallpaper this time of year, usually changing it when he took the new one until the new year.

Andy leaned forward to look at the image. She too had been confused. And the cat looked familiar. She thought she might have seen a photo or something of the cat before. But couldn't be sure. She was not surprised about the cat actually being an alien. Aliens were common enough. Technically she had until recently been dating one.

”Well if you get away with it, let me know.” Andy shrugged. If Dorian was able to pet a tiger, more power to him..

Percy studied the photo for a moment. It was just… a cat? Was the cat particularly violent? He frowned. Surely a better point of reference for a tiger would have been Amour or Amelie? He supposed it was an alien but… it was a cat. Was he missing something? “Dorian… that’s just a cat,” he asserted.

Dorian rolled his eyes. ”No, common misconception. Goose is a Flerkin. ‘e's a race of alien's wit’ extradimensional stomachs t'at shoot out tendrils and claws t'at decay matter or somet'in’.”

“What happened to the photo of us?” he pouted slightly.

”What?”

“Your phone’s background used to be us.”

”Perce, I changed it every ‘oliday season. T'is is Goose from last year, I…couldn't see ‘im t'is year so I guess i wont ‘ave an up to date pic for next year…but, it's kind of like a tradition. “

Andy leaned back in her chair and let the tiff pass around her. She could feel the jealousy from Percy. He did not like to share. He did not like to be ignored. She considered these traits of Percy’s and tried to fit them into how she would deal with him going forward. Andy already knew not to touch Percy. Now she filed these new tidbits away. Joining them with the rest of the picture she had of him. Still obviously incomplete, but a little more detailed from today than she had known of him a day ago. Her phone background was the most basic one that came with it.

Percy sulked slightly, and took another bite of latke. He liked being the background on Dorian’s phone. It was silly to be jealous of a cat, he knew, but… he was a little bit jealous of a cat.

Silence fell over the three, over the photo of a cat. Dorian decided on how to break it, he hovered his phone up and above the three at a flattering angle as he snapped a picture of all three. ”Time to make memories.”

Andy smiled as the photo was snapped. It was her usual smile, not the bright one that came spontaneously. This was the easy smile that she used most of the time.

”I don’t think photos are necessary to make memories. But they are good to look back upon.” She thought of a photo album that didn’t have a picture of her in it, but contained so many people and bits of her past jumbled all together. That album had broken her heart a little. To know that these people had thought she was dead and that there had been no proof of her life among them had been painful. She had cried. Dorian hadn’t understood why at the time.

”Thank you for sharing your photos with me,” she added suddenly. Her smile grew a little, but was sadder than before.

Percy had gotten somewhat better at smiling for photos. He didn’t enjoy taking them, feeling a little on edge whenever a camera was brought out. But the people in his life now enjoyed taking them, giving him opportunities to practice forcing his face into a smile. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy Andy and Dorian’s company or that he was unhappy - yes, he was a little jealous of a cat, but it wasn’t a huge deal. He just hated photos of himself. If anything, he felt a little self conscious, too. He hadn’t meant to shut down the conversation. He smiled for the photo as Dorian took it.

Dorian looked at the picture, smiling. He then realized what Amdy had meant, how that album, or well pancakes, had made her cry that night. ”Now I can finally add t'e elusive Andy into my photo album! You'll need to sign it of course once I print it out. I t'ink…I t'ink I'm finally findin’ what I've been lookin’ for.”

”Sure thing,” Andy said. ”Ohh, I should get a photo with your dad’s. Dang, should have gotten one with Val too.” She had left barely any evidence of her passing through the world. It was good to know that there was proof of her now.

”Speaking of old photos though. Do you want that one that the two of you found? I don’t really want to carry it around still.” It felt a little weird to keep it. Dorian had his book of photos.

”If you don't want it, I'd love to add it to my book! And we can get one with Val soon I'm sure, just gotta ask em to come back down for a little photo op, or we go up to t'em. Neit'er is very ‘ard to do.”

”Yes, that’d be nice.” Andy smiled. A little relieved. The photo was of her and Zari on Genosha, some day before the final one. Andy wasn’t exactly sure when the photo had been taken. She didn’t even remember it being taken.

”I’d love to spend more time with Val too. For me it hasn’t been that long since I met everyone, or even since I saw them last. But that whole group, they are why I am alive. I owe them more than I gave them in the end. It’d be nice to show that appreciation.” She had gotten a holiday gift for Val, technically it was for Eva too, but she didn’t know Eva very well.

”Is it just me, or is it weird Val and Eva got together? Val doesn’t seem like the type to marry a literal pop star.”

Percy did not know these people. This seemed to be a conversation between Dorian and Andy. So he pulled out his phone and opened up AO3, navigating to his bookmarks and resuming a plot heavy Achilles/Patroclus Song of Achilles omegaverse longfic he had been reading.

Dorian shrugged. ”I mean it makes sense to me. ‘er brot'er is a pop star too, and t'ey spend a lot of time toget'er given…stuff. So she met anot'er Pop Star, t'ey liked each ot'er, and next t'in’ i know I'm walkin’ down t'e aisle given t'em a ring. I was so nervous I felt like t'e sweat from my ‘ands would make t'e ring fall and vanish away. Luckily I ‘adn't ‘ad my powers yet so I couldn't phase it away.”

Andy laughed. ”I guess that’s fair. It is just funny to me that someone who disappears like Val does would end up with an actual pop icon. I forget that Harry is one too. So it makes sense once you look at it that way.” She gave a little shrug.

”Gideon had me listen to all of her albums. I won’t say I enjoyed it, she’s not my style. But she’s good.” Andy could respect someone talented.

”She is a bit more of Percy's speed I guess. So is ‘arry if ‘e ever gave ‘im a try.” Dorian grumbled out the last bit. ”T'ough I guess now I'll ‘ave a whole new genre of music to listen to once you give me t'e mixtape. So excited for t'at!”

Percy glanced up from his phone, hearing his name. “Who’s more my speed?” he asked.

”Eva Moore,” Andy told Percy. She smiled at Dorian. ”Alright, I’m stuffed. Let’s do something.”

“Who?” Percy slipped his phone away.

”I'll show you ‘er later. You'll like ‘er.” Dorian polished off his plate before looking towards Andy and Percy. ”What's t'ere to do on Hanukkah?” He knew different families did different things, traditions, during each holiday. But had no idea what might happen for these.

”I know there are games, but I don’t know them yet. We’ve been busy and I haven’t had time to learn them yet.”

Percy groaned slightly. He had been afraid this would happen. His last friend had been much the same way, wanting to learn the games you played on Hanukkah. “They’re not fun games, but I will teach you if you wish,” he conceded. “I can show you how to play dreidel.”

”Well, we can learn, and then laugh about how un-fun the game is,” Andy shrugged. ”There is a few sets over there, let me grab the box.” Andy went over to a cabinet and pulled out a metal box with several of the dreidels.

Dorian watched as Andy began to bring over a box of what looked like tops. He wondered if this was anything like Beyblades, but he didn't want to voice that thought out loud.

As Andy went over to get the dreidels, Percy collected their plates and returned to the kitchen, setting them aside. He’d spotted the familiar candy earlier, and approached the bowl of chocolate gelt. He took out thirty pieces - enough for each of them to start with ten pieces, and not so many that the game could drag on forever. He returned to where they had been sitting, and distributed ten of the candy coins to Dorian, and another ten to Andy. “There are four sides to the dreidel, each with a Hebrew letter on them,” he began to instruct.

He picked up a dreidel and showed the first side. “This side is nun - it means nisht or nothing. If you spin and land on this one, you do nothing.” He then turned the dreidel. “This one is gimel - it means gantz or everything. You take everything that is in the pot. The next side is hey - it means halb or half. You take half of what is in the pot. If it’s an odd number, we round up. And the last side is shin - meaning shtel or put in. You put a piece of gelt in the pot.”

“We each start off with ten gelt. At the beginning of the round, we each then put one piece of our gelt into the pot. Whenever the pot is empty - or just has one piece - everyone will put a piece of gelt into the pot. The first person then spins the dreidel and follows the instructions for the side it lands on. Once they resolve that, play moves to the next person, and we continue on. If at any point you are completely out of gelt, you are out of the game. The objective is to win it all. Any questions?”

”Nope, that’s straightforward enough.” Andy slid one of her gelt into the center of the table. ”Oh, let me do a practice spin real quick. I haven’t used a top since I was like five.” Andy twisted the dreidel and it spun perfectly for a moment before toppling over and landing on nun. ”Alright, perfect. I can do this. Ready?”

”Wait wait let me try!” Dorian grabbed the dreidel and attempted to spin it, having it somehow just immediately topple over with a thunk. ”Wha– no…Andy ‘ow'd you do t'at?”

Percy tricked not to snicker.

Andy did not try to not laugh. She laughed. ”Like this.” she repeated what she had done previously but slower for Dorian to watch.

Dorian tried to mimic Andy's movements, but it just wouldn't take. Sure, it spun a little this time, but it still virtually fell after three rotations. He huffed, tackling this problem the only way he knew how. ”OK driedel, it's time for you to let it rip!” He wrapped telekinetic energy around the dreidels top, like an invisible string that he then pulled on to make it start to spin. And it worked. ”It is a beyblade” He whispered out loud.

“It’s a… what?” Percy tilted his head, confused. He was about to protest too that it was cheating to use telekinesis, but he couldn’t actually think of a rule against it.

Andy giggled. ”Only if you pit it against another one.” Tilted her head thinking of how to explain bayblades.

”Uh, spinning tops that hit each other til one stops spinning,” Andy said with a shrug.

”Is pittin’ t'em against each ot'er Kosher?”

Percy couldn’t really visualize what Andy and Dorian meant. He stared at his boyfriend for a moment, before deciding that he didn’t actually need to explain what Kosher meant. He put one of his gelt in the pot, indicated for Andy and Dorian to do the same, and he spun the dreidel. It spun and spun and spun, before landing on gimel. Percy took the three gelt from the middle. “I take everything. And now that the pot is empty, we all contribute again,” he added, as he tossed in a single gelt.

Andy did not know the answer to that question and decided to not answer. Andy slid another gelt in and waited for Dorain to do so too. Then spun the dreidel. The nun came up.
”Do we add another gelt or does Dorian just spin it now?

“You only need to add gelt when you roll shin or the pot has one or fewer pieces left in it. Right now there’s three pieces again, and you rolled nun, so you are fine.”

Dorian placed a piece of gelt atop his thumb and forefinger and flicked it up into the air and down into the pot. ”Let it rip.” He whispered as he made the top spin, waiting for it stop until it finally landed on…nisht. ”Perce is cheatin’”

“I’m not the one using their powers to spin a dreidel. And if I were cheating, what would you do about it?” He raised an eyebrow, before going to take his turn. The dreidel spun and spun, almost landing on nun before it finally settled on shin. He tossed a gelt in, bringing his count to eleven.

Andy raised an eyebrow at the teasing but didn't say anything about it. She spun the dreidel and it landed on gimel she pulled everything in the pile toward herself leaving one coin for the next pot. She now had 12 pieces.

”This sort of reminds me of that terrible card game War. Have either of you ever played it?”

Dorian raised an eyebrow at Percy's goad. What would he do? Financially ruin him in a game of dreidel that's what. Thankfully Erik had had metallic dreidels for them to play with, no doubt making it easier for him to spin as well. A little shift here and Percy pays more, a smaller shift there and Andy gets it all. It was simple. ”War gets intense t'ough.” He threw another coin into the pot before going to roll. Another Nun, he groaned.

Percy shook his head. He hadn’t played very many card games. He used to be really into Magic the Gathering, but he hadn’t touched it in a while. He didn’t really have anyone to play with, so his G’raha Tia Commander deck was gathering dust. He tossed in a gelt, refilling the pot after Andy’s victory, and he spun the dreidel again - and again, it landed on shin. A little annoying to happen twice in a row, but he didn’t think anything of it - there were only four options, after all. He tossed in another gelt. He now only had nine.

Andy spun the dreidel and it landed on nun. ”It is a terrible game at as soon as the cards are dealt the rng is over and who wins is determined. Basically with a deck of cards two people pull the top card of their half face up. Whichever number is higher wins and takes both cards adding it to the bottom of their deck. This goes on until one person wins. It takes forever, and is kind of boring.”

”T'at's because you probably aren't playin’ wit' an enchanted deck.” Dorian spun the dreidel, getting what he had now deemed the ‘gimme’ side as he pulled the pot towards him. ”T'e cards we use are all RNG. The number and suit constantly shift until t'ey are flipped over.”

“Hm, your luck seems to have turned,” Percy noted, as he tossed a gelt in to the center, bringing him to eight. He didn’t mind that he was losing - if it meant the game ended faster, he would gladly throw every chocolate coin back inside. And his own luck seemed to agree with him, as the dreidel landed on shin again. He threw another gelt in. And then he paused. There was something he needed to tell Andy about. He’d been waiting until Dorian was here. “I met Gideon’s brother.”

Andy slid another coin in, making her amount 10. She spun the dreidel and ‘nun’ came up, she leaned back and titled her head at Percy's comment.

”Gideon told me she had a brother, but that he was dead. She didn't mention there was a living brother. Where did you meet him?” Andy would have to tell Gideon. This was probably someone lying, but Andy wanted to make sure she had all the details before she told Gideon. If she had a sibling she had presumed dead and wasn't she would want to know. She would also want to know if someone was pretending to be her sibling even if it was just to punch them in the face until they stopped.

“At…” Percy cut himself off. He took a breath for a moment. He picked a spot on the wall to stare at, to memorize as he spoke. “I met him when I was at CAGE for rehab a little over a week ago.” He swallowed slightly, his nerves temporarily skyrocketing, as a faint blue shimmer appeared around his hands. He had told himself he didn’t care if Andy knew. He had told himself that. He didn’t care. It was fine. Gideon deserved to know her brother was alive. He had told August he would help him and this was part of it.

Andy paused, she watched Percy, then gave a small nod. ”What is his name? Not that I think you would lie to me. I just want to verify with Gideon. If I tell her this, it changes a whole lot for her.”

Andy did not dig deeper into Percy’s situation. Addiction was awful and she didn't want to pick on him for it. He didn't deserve, no one did, to be picked on for such things.

“August Pearlman,” Percy said, recalling all of his antics - and the very real fear he had glimpsed. “He’s… he’s very much like Gideon.”

Andy nodded again. ”Yeah, that's his name. Alright. I'll tell her, in person.” Should she wait for school to start? Or tell her during their upcoming planned date? Or should she call and tell her right now? The last didn't feel right. This was an in-person conversation. So right now was out of the question. She felt a little light headed suddenly. If this was Gideon’s brother what had really happened?

”Wait? Tall lanky guy? Licks people? Talks to ‘imself? T'at August?” Dorian asked, finally speaking up after having already peeled and eaten 4 gelt coins while the pair spoke.

Percy nodded. He grimaced slightly. “Erm, excuse me. I need to use the restroom.” He got up off of the couch they’d been sitting on, and headed towards the restroom he’d spotted earlier. He needed a moment to breathe. Admitting that he had been in rehab had not been easy, even if it had been the right thing to do - and the noise of the party was starting to grate on his nerves.

”Wait do you know him too?” Andy asked Dorian after Percy left the table. She was fairly certain their game was over. She had seen Dorian eat at least one of his chocolate coins. She picked up one of hers and ate it.

”Kind of? I met ‘im when I visited April one time. ‘e uh…licked ‘er. ‘e seemed well enough…I guess? It's ‘ard to tell especially in CAGE. I felt so on edge t'ere I dont remember a lot…sorry.”

Andy chewed on her lip a little thinking. ”That’s a weird thing to do to people. Seems a little... invasion of personal space. Should I ask April about him? Or just tell Gideon? I don’t know how to tell someone that their dead brother is possibly not dead.”

Dorian chewed on another coin, trying to think more on what to say. ”Mon ami, you've got me. I don't know any which way in where you tell someone t'at. Maybe, I mean did Gideon say ‘ow ‘e died? It may ‘elp if it isn't somet'in’ crazy like natural causes.”

”He didn’t die of natural causes,” Andy admitted. ”It’s weird, he died... Hmm, I don’t know if I should say. Gideon isn’t the most share-y type person and this isn’t my story to tell.” Andy cut herself off. She didn’t want to spread stories that weren’t hers to tell.

”Wha-? No! Now you ‘ave to tell! You can't be a tease like t'at please? Besides ‘ow am I suppose to ‘elp you when I don't even ‘ave a full story to work wit’.”

Andy shifted, a little uncomfortable. She would prefer to have this conversation in private if she was going to tell Dorian. ”Can I ask Gideon if I can tell you?” She lay her head down on the table. ”Wait, that’s dumb. If I ask that she’s going to ask why. God what the hell?”

”T'at…I cant ‘elp wit’. Sorry”

”It is fine, she’s supposed to come by later. We’ll just go to my room and chat there. I think we should come up with a reason why we know this other than Percy meeting him. If you met him too, can we say that? I don’t want Percy to be more uncomfortable than necessary.” She didn’t want to lie, but this would technically be true, without outing why Percy met August. Andy lifted her head and leaned back in her chair again.

”Yeah, I'm ok wit’ t'at if it makes you feel better to tell ‘er t'at.” Dorian realized that meant that he wasn't going to find out the brotherly lore. Laaame.

A moment later, Percy reappeared from the restroom, and he eyed the state of the pile of gelt. “I see the game was abandoned, then?” He took a seat down next to Dorian again, tapping his arm again twice.

”Thanks.” Andy looked up at Percy as he rejoined them, ”Yeah, sorry. The chocolate is better than the game I think.” She tried to give him a reassuring smile.

”But you know what's better t'an gelt? (But not the mystery of a dead brother) presents!” Dorian beamed looking towards the two.

“I told you the game was bad,” Percy reminded them. On the subject of presents though, he tensed up slightly. He had brought gifts for both of them, yes, but he didn’t know if they would like them. He had very little idea what Andy would like. “I’ll go grab them,” he then dematerialized, and reappeared a second later with two presents in hand.

”Oh, let me grab yours. It’s in my room. I’ll be right back.” Andy stood up and dashed to her room.

Dorian just sat there, alone, for the briefest of moments as Andy raced off to grab her gifts and Percy his. In that moment, Dorian scooted all the gelt to himself and opened up a few, shoveling them in his mouth as he used his powers to float another latke over.

“Do you actually like gelt?” Percy asked as they waited for Andy to return, somewhat surprised.

Dorian took a bite of the latke, still some chocolate in his mouth. He waited to swallow before speaking. ”Its like, sweet and salty if you mix Latke and Gelt. So not bad.”

“… I’m not kissing you with a latke-gelt mouth.” The chocolate and potato combination wasn’t the problem - it was the metallic taste the gelt wrapper left behind, combined with a cheap, poor quality chocolate.

”Your loss.” Dorian said as he stuck his tongue out.

Andy was half jogging when she came back from her room carrying two packages. One was wrapped in Christmas themed paper, the other in Hanukkah paper. She handed the Christmas one to Dorian and the Hanukkah one to Percy.

”Happy holidays. I don’t know if you’ll like it or not Percy, or you might already have it. I don’t know. If you do, feel free to tell me.”

Percy had no idea at all what Andy would have given him. He handed a present back to Andy, and then the other to Dorian. He’d already given him a Christmas present - a song he’d composed for him on the piano. He had struggled a bit to find another gift that felt appropriate for him. He hoped both of them would like them. He opened up the present from Andy, and immediately, he recognized the book. He already had a copy of it - not this exact edition, though. But most of the books he owned, he had at least three copies of.

“I don’t have this,” it wasn’t technically a lie. “Thank you very much.”

Andy sighed, a little relieved that Percy didn’t have the book. She smiled and opened her gifts. First the one from Percy. It was a Star of David pendant. She didn’t have one yet. Andy had been a little nervous about it. Unsure of what order to take steps in. But this was a gift. It didn’t feel inappropriate.

”Thank you, Percy. This means a lot.” She put the necklace on. Then turned to the small package from Dorian. She froze. The old weathered deck of cards that was revealed from the packaging was something she had thought lost. She couldn’t even remember the exact last moment she had held or seen the cards. Andy was certain she had gotten it back after being frozen, but she didn’t remember where she had left the cards after that.

Her eyes burned as she looked at the deck. She opened it. The cards were weathered. They’d be terrible in any sort of game where someone didn’t want Andy to cheat. She knew them all. Could tell them apart. She shuffled them. Her hand movements were smooth, practiced, nearly perfect. She moved cards with intention. One staying exactly where she wanted it no matter how much she moved the others.

”Thank you, Dorian. These cards were Jamie Drummond’s. He taught me how to fight, and he taught me a couple of magic tricks.” She slid the cards back into their box. ”How?” She asked, her voice quiet, staring at the deck. The box was primarily green with an Irish knot looping over it.

Dorian looked at what Andy had gotten Percy, smiling knowing full well he owned three others of the same variety but happy his boyfriend was being nice about it and lying. When Andy opened hers, he wasn't sure how well she'd like it. ”Oh…it was sort of a secret until well…Christmas. But, remember back at t'e Contest? When Billy, Danni, and I merged. T'ere was t'is…power inside of ‘im and I wanted to do some good wit’ it before we dissolved back to ourselves. I told Danni we should bring back Genosha, make it how it once was, and well…we did. Took t'e rents t'ere for Christmas and while I was t'e I saw t'e retro deck and t'ought…you may want it back.”

”How did you even know it was mine? I left it, god where? Magneto’s place? I was there like a month. Unless the [gift from Max that we never decided] was there too? I really only left with the clothes on my back when I got there. When I left with Zari, the pillow followed me because it is magical. Pixie made it for me at Magneto’s request because I had the worst nightmares.” Andy was rambling. She held the deck of cards like they were breakable, close to her body. Magneto and her had talked about what happened to Genosha. How they had to leave, why they had to flee. Danni and Dorian had fixed it. They had fixed her home. Andy had struggled with that identity. Didn’t feel that she deserved it. She wasn’t born there like Danni. She hadn’t been conscious during its construction. But she had defended it, twice. She had lost people she had known and bled there. It was her home. She was Genoshan.

”I was lucky I even had these. I left the Drummonds’ in a hurry. It was on fire and we were being attacked. I literally had my jacket and the few possessions I had on me.” The tears that had burned at her eyes spilled and she wiped at them.

”Sorry. Crying... again. I just realized how much of the last year for me was running with what I had on me. I haven’t had stuff in so long.”

”Eriks place was a little ‘and to miss. ‘E may be in Louisiana now but ‘e sure as ‘eck ‘as same taste in decor. Metal. Somet'in’ just I don't know…spoke to me about ‘em. Like when you go antiquin’ and you see somet'in’ t'at doesn't appear old it appears well loved, faded sure, but loved. So I took a gamble and snagged t'e cards up.” Dorian was fidgeting with the wrapping paper of the gifts on his lap as he spoke, nervous but excited.

”Thank you, really. This means a lot to me.” Andy stood up and hugged Dorian real quick. ”Okay, sorry, open your presents.”

Dorian opened up Andy's gift and screamed. ”No way!!! T'is is so cool! Oh we ‘ave to do anot'er movie night soon now! Where do we even start? I mean obviously we can do –” He'd realized he hadn't opened Percy's gift yet, tearing it open to reveal a thoughtfully crafted coupon book. ”Awe Perce! You shouldn't ‘ave! I'm gonna cash em in dont you worry. Even if its finals week.”

Percy smiled slightly, seeing how thoughtful Dorian’s gift to Andy had been - it had been the perfect thing to get her, to restore something she’d lost. He didn’t fixate on the fact that the Entity had been brought up again, when his boyfriend had merged with his old crush. No, he definitely didn’t feel a pang of jealousy go through him at that. Not at all. Not one bit. He was just happy that she had a nice Hanukkah gift - and that his guess about the pendant had seemed correct.

Andy had crushed it too as it came to Dorian - as was evident from the scream. He couldn’t help but feel a little bit self conscious. Was his gift good enough? He rolled his eyes at Dorian’s reaction. “Oh, I’m so very worried.”

”Glad you like it.” Andy did look genuinely relieved. She was sure Dorian would appreciate the box set. But she didn’t know for sure if he had all of the movies already or what.

”We def need to watch them. Percy, do you like horror movies?”

Dorian began to flip through the coupon book again. ”T'ere may be a coupon ‘ere t'at says ‘e ‘as to watch one anyways.”

Percy did enjoy horror - although his preferred medium was in a book, as it was for most things. He’d seen one or two when Dorian put on a horror movie, but he’d found his boyfriend a bit too distracting for him to fully focus on the movie. “I haven’t seen very many. I like Stephen King, though. And the classics - Frankenstein, Dracula, Carmilla, and so on.”

”Have you seen the original Nosferatu. It is a classic horror film. Also, super important role in the history of film. When it came out it was not far enough away from Dracula and they got in trouble. So it was ordered destroyed. But people kept copies of it and pirated it anyway. It’s one of those, the people refuse to be censored sort of things.”

He shook his head. “Is that in the collection?” he asked, looking at Dorian’s gift. He could appreciate a struggle against censorship - the most important books were the banned ones, after all. “Could we watch it?” He was a little jumpy when it came to horror in film form, but in a group setting he figured it couldn’t be that bad - people would probably be talking the entire time and ruining the suspense anyway.

Dorian phased the plastic wrapping off of the movie collection and began to search the titles within. Pulling out Nosferatu.”Bingo. Maybe we can watch it tonight when Gideon gets ‘ere? T'ink Erik would mind?”

”Perfect. That should be fine. If I get called away for something you’ll be fine. I’ve seen it before. It’s also chill cause it is a silent film. There’s not any of the usual jump scares.” Andy pulled out her phone to see if she had a message from Gideon about her arrival time.

@Andy

am outside

Percy nodded, a little relieved to hear that there weren’t any jump scares. He was a little concerned it would cause him to reflexively teleport all the way back to California. He noticed Andy take out her phone, but any possible subtext of the choice was lost on him. So instead he opened up the present Dorian had given to him, revealing a pendant necklace. He gasped slightly, recognizing what it was immediately. “This is a pen,” he said, his voice thick with giddy glee as he tugged on the pendant, revealing it was indeed a writing implement. He looked at Dorian. “Will you put it on me?”

Dorian giggled. ”Sure.” It was a genuine antique, and he was worried he may damage the clasp if he fiddled with it too hard. So instead, Dorian grasped the back edges of the necklace and made himself and it phase briefly as he wrapped it around Percy before bringing it back into solidity. ”It’s like you were made for it.”

”Speak of the devil, Gideon is here. I’m going to get the door for her.” She looked over at the necklace. ”How is that a pen?”

Percy blushed deeply, as he decided he was never going to take the necklace off. He immediately went back on his earlier rule of not kissing Dorian with latke-gelt mouth, giving his boyfriend a soft kiss. “Merci beaucoup,” he whispered. “Je l’aime. Je t’aime.” He then pulled away, before putting his fingers around the pendant and tugging, the pen coming away. He showed it to Andy. “It’s effectively a cap, here, on the necklace.” He then put it back on.

”Huh, neat. Be right back.” Andy went to the front door and opened it. She grinned at Gideon.

”Hey, welcome in.” Andy waved Gideon in and then hugged her. ”Percy, Dorian and I were talking about watching Nosferatu you interested?”

Gideon gave Andy a hug back, before tilting her head slightly. “What’s that?” The movies she watched were in two categories: gay and gayer. And sports. She loved a good underdog movie, preferably about female boxers. And while she dressed in black and occasionally painted her face to look like the visage of a skull, it was more for the aesthetic than for actually being goth. She was a jock at heart.

”Classic horror. Basically the first Dracula film.” Andy pulled her the rest of the way in and shut the door. She held Gideon’s hand as they walked back to the table where Dorian and Percy were.

”We just did gifts. I still have yours.”

Gideon nodded. “My gift, uh, you can’t show them,” she said, her usual cool persona faltering for a moment. She held a bag in front of her, black with rainbow tissue paper concealing its contents. She then nodded at Percy and Dorian, and went in for a bro hug. “Sup!”

Dorian bro hugged her back. ”Sup.”

“Dude, have you been working out? Your biceps look a little bigger,” she praised, before going in for one with Percy.

Percy tried to teleport in time, but it was no use. He froze.

“And you seem smaller. Sick!”

”Gotta keep up wit’ t'e sword trainin’ cant rely on my powers all t'e time you know?” Dorian flexed his arm for Gideon before using his powers to set her a plate of food and bring it over. He stole a latke off it. ”Gotta carbo-bulk.”

“Why haven’t we fucking fought, man?” Gideon tapped the two hander she kept slung over her shoulder. “Can we fight now? I haven’t been to temple in a minute, is that allowed?” She looked at Andy, as if asking for permission. “Have you ever fought to the floor?”

”I think as long as we do it outside.” Andy thought back to the first time she had trained with Magneto. It had been inside but there hadn't been guests. He did sort of look down on the contest though.

She peaked into the bag and smiled. ”I can put this in my room and grab your gift. Then we can decide which to do first. Movie or spar. As for fighting to the floor, I don't know. I've done a lot of fighting so maybe.”

“If we can’t fight to the floor, can we fuck to the floor? Me and you, obvi. Sorry Dorian, but I’m not into twinks, even ones packing muscle like you.”

Andy got very red in the face and she nodded. ”Just us, no uh... witnesses. Unless it is America. And I just realized how weird that sounds.”

Gideon pumped her fist into the air. “Hell yeah!!”

”Im not big on to t'e floor anyways. I prefer makin’ my opponents forfeit once t'ey realize t'ey're outmatched. Also I don't t'ink Andy would be ‘appy if I killed ‘er girlfriend.”

”Do not kill my girlfriends. Either of them.” Andy stood up and gestured the others to follow her. She stopped in her bedroom, placing the unopened present from Gideon on her nightstand. And the deck of cards next to it. She had put on the necklace. She picked up a wrapped box and handed it to Gideon.

”I honestly wasn't sure exactly what to get you, but I hope this is something you'll use.”

“Pffft, you can’t kill me. I’m immortal, bro. But fine, be a lame coward,” Gideon sighed. “My brother would’ve fought me to the floor, y’know.”

Percy was a little sad he wasn’t going to get to watch Dorian sword fight. Despite not knowing how to use a sword himself, he really admired watching his boyfriend train with one. He used to play with wooden swords with his best friend when they were younger, just hacking away at each other in the random parks they’d find their ways to in the area. He missed that. And Gideon wasn’t the only one who’d noticed improvements to Dorian’s physique. “You could spar without going to the floor… it would be good training for both of you…”

Gideon shrugged, before ripping open the present from Andy - and she screamed. “LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOO!!! THE THIRSTING BLADE IS GONNA LOVE THIS!!!!” She wrapped Andy in a huge hug, spinning her around before putting a kiss on her jawline. It was a sword care set!! She’d lost hers!! She needed one desperately!!

”Fine. Pops is on standby, Andy can get ‘im if it gets bad. We fight to t'e floor, no deat’ as you can't die so only until one of us is unconscious.” Dorian decided to remove the turtleneck as it would impede his movements, leaving him in a simple white tank top as he unsheathed his sword.

Andy wanted to say something when Gideon mentioned her brother, but Percy told Dorian to fight and Gideon opened the gift. Thank god she liked it. Andy smiled and kissed Gideon back.

”Back yard.” Andy reminded them and led them out to the back yard area. She hadn’t spent much time there. Magneto liked sitting on the front porch so when they were outside it was usually there. She’d tell Gideon about the chance her brother was alive later.

Dorian and Gideon stood on opposite sides of the yard, Gideon with her bastard sword and Dorian with his longsword. He quickly closed the gap as Gideon attempted to block with their blade, Dorian's own sliding down the flat of it and leaving a small cut on Gideon’s cheek. She seemed to…smile? Dorian went to back up, give some distance, but in that moment Gideon took advantage. She locked her leg behind Dorian's, making him begin to fall and as Dorian caught himself with telekinesis, she baseball swung her sword against his skull and knocked him out.

“THREE STRIKES, YOU’RE OUT!” Gideon screamed. She didn’t actually know how baseball worked.

Percy immediately went on over to Dorian, freaking out as he dropped. He knelt down in the ground next to him, trying to assess if he was breathing okay, if there were any wounds or blood from the contact. Meanwhile, Gideon was running laps around Dorian, holding her sword above her head like a gladiator. “YOU CAN’T BEAT ME, BITCH!!!! I’M THE FUCKING KING OF SWORDS!!!!”

Andy watched the fight. She was impressed. She needed to do more sword practice. Lady Nimue had given her one. Andy checked that Dorian was going to be okay, and gave him a thumbs up.

”Okay, so that was super hot. My room?” She asked Gideon with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes! Fucking absolutely!” Gideon stared at Andy for a moment, before doing the chest-slam-jump at her that football players enjoyed doing. “Sorry losers, better luck next time!” she then called out to Percy and Dorian, before eagerly heading inside. She knew where Andy’s room was.

Andy laughed, “See you guys later.” She followed Gideon back to her room. Two things on her mind. First she did want to spend some time... making out with Gideon. Then she was going to tell her about August.

Once they were into the room, Gideon set her sword down on the bed carefully, and then turned to Andy. She put one hand on each of Andy’s thighs, hoisting her up into the air so that way her legs could be wrapped around her, and pressed the two of them up against the wall. “Mm, you taste like… batteries?” Gideon asked, a little confused as she kissed Andy the way she always did - leading with tongue. Once she was certain Andy had a secure grip on her, she took one hand off of her thigh, sneaking it underneath her shirt and letting her nails brush up gently on her back - and a slight growl escaped her throat. “Fuck, I missed you.”

Andy wrapped her arms around Gideon to steady herself, not that it was needed much. Gideon was impressively strong. She tilted her head trying to figure out why she would taste like batteries. She gasped at the touch of Gideon’s nails on her back.

“I had latkes, and gelt. Not together. But the gelt was the last thing I ate. I missed you too.” Andy slid one of her hands into Gideon’s hair, tugging at it gently.

“I have been thinking about seeing you again since the last time I saw you.”

“Mm, harder, princess,” Gideon instructed, as Andy started to pull on her hair. “Must be the gelt.” She then started trailing kisses from her lips, to her cheeks, to her jawline, to her neck. “Hickey okay?” she then asked.

”Probably. I’ve definitely had better chocolate.” Andy pulled harder on Gideon’s hair, she nodded at the question.

”Yes.” There was enough time before school started, and also she didn’t really care. If any of her friends saw it she’d shrug. And if anyone else saw it she really didn’t care about their opinion.

Gideon gasped slightly at the tug, taking quick little breaths as she sucked on Andy’s neck, leaving little bites behind as she went. “Need everyone to know what I’ve done to you,” she muttered, before pressing her hips even harder into Andy.

Andy giggled a little, ”Yes.” She liked this, liked being touched, and loved. She moaned as Gideon pressed against her.

An appropriate amount of time later, Gideon took Andy away from the wall, laying her down onto the bed next to the sword. The two of them were covered in sweat, their hair disshelved, but Gideon was on cloud nine. She’d gotten to fight Dorian and Andy to the fucking floor. “Happy Hanukkah, gorgeous,” she murmured into Andy’s ear. “When’s movie time?”

”Happy Hanukkah,” Andy had a shit eating grin on her face, she moved so that Gideon had space. ”I’ll text Dorian in a bit and ask when he is free. I have something potentially very important to tell you first though. Your brother, August, you mentioned him.”

“What about Auggie?” Gideon asked, unconcerned. “Is he in a doll?”

”Oh god no. Uh, Dorian said he thinks he met him. Well he met someone claiming to be your brother.” That was the truth. August may have told Percy that he was Gideon’s brother, but Dorian had met him.

“Well, that’s fucking weird,” she said, shrugging slightly. “I didn’t know corpses could talk.”

”He is at CAGE. Apparently alive, and licking people.” Andy gently rubbed Gideon’s back. She wasn’t surprised that Gideon wasn’t reacting intensely. Gideon tended to be fairly nonchalant.

Gideon paused. He was licking people? Her brother had always loved to lick people. It was his way of saying hello. She didn’t know how to feel about this. Even in a world of superheroes and monsters, her life was simple, easy, straightforward. She fought people with her giant ass sword. She fucked hot girls like Andy. That was it. She didn’t have brothers who were secretly dead and now licking people as an undead.

“Is he a zombie then? I thought zombies bit people.”

”Uh, honestly, I don’t know. If you want you can ask follow up questions of Dorian, and Percy. Or if you want we can go to CAGE and visit him?”

“Nah!” Gideon put her sunglasses back on, getting up out of the bed and going to find her pants from where they’d been abandoned. “I think I’m good.” Her brother wasn’t alive. He was dead. It was simple. Easy, really. She didn’t - she didn’t need anything complicated in her life. “Wanna text them about the movie now?” She grabbed her sword and put it back on her back, and then shimmied back into her pants.

Andy grabbed her phone and sent Dorian a text.

@Dorian

”Sooo Gideon doesn’t seem to care? Also when do you want to watch the movie, we are ready.”

Camp Lava Lake

---

---

9:30 AM - Friday, June 13th 1980 - Lava Lake trail, BC, Canada

---

@KazAlkemi@Achronum@kittyluna45@Morose@Trainerblue192

---

With the bell rung, it summoned everyone to the dining area. Dobbs, stopped off to wash his hands and face.

“Your girlfriend tell you the deal?” he asked Marco.

---

---

Emily

---

Location: Camp Lava Lake Trail
Skills:

---

---

Emily made a few extra notes in her notebook as she and Nancy returned to the main building. ”Perfect, Dobbs, do we have trail markers or do I need to place an order?”

“Place an order,” he said succinctly. Emily tore a page from her notebook and wrote down a few things. She left it, and the pencil on the table for anyone else to add to.

Then food was served, the places and flatware had been set out, but they’d have to serve themselves. That was easy enough, and the group was soon sitting at one of the tables. Marco’s breakfast was delicious. The quiche, a primarily veggie dish with some bacon, was delicious. There were also eggs, bacon, and toast available for everyone. As for drinks, they were much more limited. There was only water, and milk. That was until later, when Emily would crack open the bottles of homemade booze. She was not bringing that to breakfast, even if Dobbs wasn’t there.

Avengers Academy: X of Swords ⚔️

Ben had finally gotten his Uncle Matt to drop him off at the skate park. He had been hoping he could go to Venice Beach, but Matt hadn’t wanted to go there. Another day he supposed. This skate park was near the school.

Danni had suggested that Ben could probably make friends at the skate park, but so far he hadn’t had much luck. He had gotten some time on his wheels, which was what he wanted more than anything. He had also started asking around for what the parkour scene in the area looked like. There were some options, which he was thankful for.

To Chase, there was nothing more freeing than feeling the wind against his face, the ground beneath his wheels, and the sound of them rolling against the pavement. It was one of the few pleasures Chase had nowadays, especially at night when the world was asleep and he was unable to doze off like the rest of them. His eyes were closed as he fell down the bowl, using the sounds and feeling to help him navigate when to open them next. But just as he did, he spotted a familiar looking Bug Boi off to the side, board in hand though all alone. The second Chase's board went airborne, a shadow opened up before him and he vanished, the sounds of his wheels and board appearing behind Ben as he pressed back to stop and twirl around him. ”Sup Bug Boi? I didn't know you skated.”

Ben did not know what to think of his luck. This guy was from the stands at the Contest. He hadn’t expected to meet him here. He had sort of hoped that the guy was going to go to Strange Academy or something. Of course he was transferring to Margret Carter. He frowned, realizing he had never gotten the guy's name.

”My name is Ben. You know you never told me yours.” Ben moved up in the line as it progressed forward for the next person to have their turn in the bowl.

Chase held his board behind his head, hands dangling from over the top of it as he walked backwards to keep Ben in sight. ” Oh Riiiiight. Big Ben the Bug Boi. I'm Chase by the way.” He said with a sly smirk as if his name was some sort of secret.

From out of the bowl came Marlena, riding on a board that went down, then up, and over the entire park for a brief moment. She practically flew overhead, her feet miraculously sticking to the board as if she had stuck magnets in her shoes earlier that morning. In the air, she lazily turned 360 degrees, and came falling back down. The wheels hit the surface of the bowl, and she went back the other way.

She flipped again, only forward this time, then caught the board in her hand, and landed on one knee. That was a trick she was still working on, and she’d made progress with it so far. With a satisfied smirk on her face, she walked away from the rim and into the direction of the line.

Ben ignored Chase for a moment as he watched Marlena do her trick. He was in fact impressed. He did wonder if she used powers to get it to work. But couldn’t be sure. He turned back to Chase.

”Alright,” Ben said. He wasn’t sure what else to say about it. At least now he knew what to call Chase. Other than annoying popcorn guy.

Chase let out an impressed whistle as he turned to see what had snagged Ben's attention so fiercely. He recognized the girl, she'd been at the victory party after the contest, something Bug Boi was oddly not present for. He ruffled Ben's hair before motioning for him to follow. ”That was a sweet trick, I've gotta know how she did that. C'mon I wanna talk to her.” For some reason he didn't wanna leave Bug Boi behind. He looked a bit pathetic all alone waiting for the bowl, and a skate park was no place for lonely bullshit.

”Who, me?”

Marlena flipped her board around, rolling the desk across her wrist like a stick and letting the momentum carry it up into a resting position against her shoulder. Marlena was wearing a black button-up shirt t-shirt, printed with roses all over it. Half a dozen bracelets of different varieties hung off her wrist, and a pair of sunglasses were draped around her neck, suspended by a yellow rock necklace.

Ben seriously considered staying in line for his turn. He was a few people away, but it was a short enough line that he didn’t mind losing his spot. If he had gone to Venice Beach he probably would have cared. He also wouldn’t be dealing with Chase.

Ben sighed and followed him. He nodded at the girl. His own board held sideways tucked against him, wheels in, at a slight angle. He wondered briefly if Danni would consider this making friends. Back in London his friends had all just sort of happened because they all lived in the same complex. They were the same age and all inhuman. Their friendship had been one mostly of convenience. But he still missed them. He dropped his board, wheels down and put one foot on it, rolling back and forth.

”Ain't he just a man of many words? That's Big Ben by the way. We were admiring the trick, definitely had to have a bit of power coming behind it yeah? So how'd you do it?” Chase dropped his board from his shoulders, placing the tip of the it onto his shoe with the bottom of the deck outwards to show off the designs and stickers he'd placed on it over the years.

”Give you three guesses.” Marlena held her hand up a few inches away from her board, and the whole thing began to float out in front of her. She swiped a finger left, causing it to pivot on its side like someone had spun a top.

”Name’s Marlena.” She flashed a smile at the quiet dude.

”TK.” Ben said in almost a half whisper. His powers, while he liked them, weren’t that flashy. Mostly he had ended up with increased proprioception and the ability to talk to insects. If it weren’t for the fact that the insects obeyed him his powers might have been dismissible. Telekinesis was wicked cool though. He wondered what the limitations were for Marlena.

”Nice to meet you. That is a rad power.” He did not want to explain what his powers were suddenly. He felt a little small. Not just the height difference between him and the other two. They were both about 16 centimeters taller than him.

”Sweet. That's Telekinesis right? I just got shadow powers, no idea if they have a name for that or not.” Chase held up his free hand as shadowy smoke began to dance in his palm before he snuffed it. ”It comes in handy at times. Especially for traveling, its much quicker than walking, and quieter too if I need to be stealthy.” He did of course neglect to mention his other power, but no one needed to know about it.

”That’s the one. I like pushing forward and keeping the board to my feet with it. Good practice. You do anything fun with that? As in not sneaky or walking.” She pointed at the shadowy smoke.

”I think that is just Shadow Manipulation or Shadow Teleportation,” Ben said. He was thankful that no one had asked what his powers were. It was cool that Marlena could use her TK to control her board.

Chase shrugged. He didn't pay much attention to the naming of powers really. His own were fairly new, but a major part of him now. Especially with how drastically it altered his body. ”Oh shit, aren't you also going to Peggy Carter's School for Mystical Delinquents?” He asked as he looked towards Ben. ”Bet you've got some super cool power, the quite kids always do. What is it? Super strength? Laser eyes? Wait hold on…you can morph into a massive kaiju!”

”Who’s Peggy Carter? I know there’s a Margaret Carter…”

”What?” Ben looked at Chase confused. What he was confused about was not the most apparent thing.

”Peggy, Margaret, Maggie, who gives a shit. It's just California's call to heroism. Nothing more nothing less.” Chase rolled his eyes.

”You guys are going there, too? I’m pretty new myself, just got here a few weeks ago.”

”Yeah I’m going. I don’t start till the new year. I just moved out here.” Ben’s accent indicated he was British. He did not answer Chase’s question about his super powers.

Chase crossed his arms, dropping his board to the ground and placing his foot atop it as he rolled it back and forth. ”Same. New rents are making me go, says it'll be good for me. Feels more like community service than anything, but at least it'll be cool to learn powers I guess.”

A part of him wanted to ask them how they got their powers. Were they born with it? Given them? Or were they like him? One of the many other kids taken and experimented on. His face soured for a brief second before he pushed the thought away. Deciding to himself he wouldn't want to bring the subject up, if only because it would mean they'd want to know the same of him.

”Pretty much how I got here, too.” Marlena grabbed her board out of the air and leaned on it like a cane. ”My dad sent me here, thinks it’ll be good for me. Hoping he’s right, since I’m a long way from home.”

Ben shifted, looking at Chase fully. ‘New rents.’ Implying old ones. Meaning Chase was either a foster, or adopted. Like Ben. He wasn’t sure about Marlena. She said ‘my dad,’ which probably meant her actual father, but not necessarily. Were all three of them orphans? Were all three of them in the same boat? Struggling to figure out who they were in a world where their parents didn’t exist any more. He had felt so lost and unmoored since his parents’ deaths. They had been so instantaneously removed from his life, and he was expected to just keep going. To change everything around him completely and still function like a normal human when he barely found reason to breathe.

“My uncle adopted me. He brought me here.” He nodded in agreement. He was here because someone else decided it was the best plan for him. Uncle Matt hadn’t even considered staying in London. Hadn’t considered letting Ben go to Braddock. Just moved him to the USA, to California, to LA for some other place and school and people Ben didn’t know or care about. Braddock had been the place he was going to go because his friends were going there. Now they were going to go without him. If they saw each other again, like in the contest next year, they’d be on opposite sides of the field. Ben sighed. He didn’t want to skate anymore.

“Do either of you know parkour?”

Chase looked towards Ben. Debating on if he should say what he wanted to say. It was weird, all three of them seemed to have a few things in common, skating and some parental figure said this school was ‘good for them' and dropped them off. ”Least your uncle took you in. My new rents are total strangers, they're cool though. Even if they put me here.” He wanted to ask Marlena how far was far? He knew from Ben's voice he was at least from across the pond. But Ben's question took him by surprise.

”I know you have to yell it before you do a trick or you'll fall. Aaaaand that a skate park may not be the best place to do it, but…that can change. Could try and make everyone else here vanish, or make us scarce and head somewhere else.”

”I think I’ll stay in Cali for now, maybe another time.” Marlena liked the occasional adventure, but she knew better than to run off with strange boys she just met. ”Never did much parkour, unless you count the board and wheels. Must be different, climbing building instead of sliding off them, yeah?”

“Pft. I mean kind of. It’s cool if you don’t want to right now.” Ben shrugged. “It’s the other thing I do. Other than skating.” And talking to bugs. He didn’t want to pressure Marlena. And he wasn’t sure he wanted to hang out with just Chase. With three of them the situation could be a little less intense than it was during the contest. He was warming up to Chase a little. He had no idea about Marlena yet, but she seemed chill. “I think I’ll get back in line for a turn.”

Chase raised an eyebrow towards Marlena's comment. ”I wasn't exactly planning on taking us outside of Cali. I figured just another location or maybe an In'N'Out or something.” He looked towards the line before them and back at Ben. ”Wanna skip the line Big Ben? I'm sure they'll let you if I ask.” He grinned.

”There’s gotta be something around here that’s less packed. It’s December, did everyone in town just get a board for Christmas?” Marlena joked.

Ben's uncle was sitting in his car waiting. So Ben didn't want to leave either. The incident at the store had made Matt happy in the end, but he had laid down some ground rules.

”Nah, no need to break skate park etiquette.” Ben shrugged. He just wanted wheels down. He wanted to move. “This isn't the biggest park. I think it is just busy because no one has anything else to do. At least it is near the school. It'll be easy to visit.” Ben was glad the conversation had drifted away from heavier topics. He didn't want to talk about his family or his powers. He just wanted to skate or move. Parkor was his usual way of doing that.

”Skateboards and Puppies. The only two acceptable gifts that people give each other this time of year.”

”Clearly, you’ve never been given a copy of Mortal Kombat,” Marlena sassed. ”Good to see there’s a skate scene in this city, I’ll be content. How often do you guys plan to come here, in the near future? I bet you’ll see me around a lot.”

”It’s close enough to school I’ll be here on weekends and probably quiet school days. It is close enough to home that during the break I’ll swing by as often as I can. Just to get out of the house. It is chaos right now.” Ben shook his head. ”So yeah, I’ll see you around.”

”I skate everyday, only time I don't come is when I'm told something bad gonna happen. Kinda have to listen to someone who can see the future you know? Beyond that…its how I clear my head, especially at night.”

”See the future? Got some psychic in the family?”

”If that’s the case I’ll keep that in mind. If I don’t see you here, just leave.”

”Is it really a psychic if its just a mutant power?” Chase joked. ”You're cool enough I'd shoot you a text if I knew to avoid it. Can't spend all my life here anyways, and I do skate around.” He pulled out his phone and went to toss it towards Ben before he stopped and simply just handed it to him. ”Feel free to add your number.”

”Mutants can be psychic, can’t they?” Marlena leaned over the short boy’s shoulder, pulling her phone out.

Ben held Chase’s phone. He had to think to remember his number since he got a new one when he came to the US. Then he typed it in with his name Ben Moss. He could tell Marlena was leaning over him and he glanced up, waiting for her to copy the number before passing the phone. He offered it up to Marlena if she wanted to put her number in too.

”Thanks.” His phone now had two local people in it. ”Shoot me a text to let me know who you are. Not many people have my number yet here but I don’t want to mix you up.”

Chase shrugged. ”Beats me, I'm not mutant so I don't really get all of that.” He took back his phone, quirking an eyebrow towards Ben before texting him so he knew who he was. Hey Big Ben, it's your boyfriend from the stands.

Marlena put her number in next. Then she sent a text from her phone, just a skateboard emoji to verify it actually worked and that she wrote it in properly.

”Uh...” Ben’s face was red hot. ”No. I...” He cleared his throat. ”You’re joking right?” He asks Chase.

Chase looked at Ben, a smirk on his face. ”You tell me Big Ben, do you want it to be a joke?” He handed his phone over to Marlena so she could input her number too, not once breaking eye contact with Ben.

”You guys need some privacy, or…”

She typed her number into his phone too, and just gave Ben a knowing look.

”I... I don’t know.” Ben admitted, answering both Marlena and Chase. He hadn’t really thought about it. He wasn’t even sure if he liked guys that way. He felt very hot. And crowded. He took a step away from both of them. They were so damn tall. It was a little frustrating. He needed to move.

”I don’t know.” He said with a bit more surety in his voice this time. ”I’ve known you for like five minutes. Maybe. I’m not against the possibility of that kind of relationship. But I don’t know.” He was repeating himself. He had seen the text from Marlena come in. A simple skate emoji. He’d know easily it was her now.

”I’ve never been in any sort of relationship.” Ben told them. ”I don’t really know what all is involved in that.” He felt like he was spiralling a little now and shut up.

Chase grinned as Marlena asked if they wanted some privacy. Chase may not have minded it, but he wasn't going to push the subject. He ruffled Ben's hair with one hand before wiping it back off on his pants. ”Hey no worries! We can take it slow little bug, I'll let your rent know I may take you out to a burger joint some time, see how you feel. The real wine and dine experience…minus the wine I guess. Maybe a Coke.”

Ben fixed his hair. He nodded nervously. He wasn’t sure how to proceed. He didn’t even know what to do with his hands now that he had fixed his hair.

”Nice.” Marlena was not a hypocrite, she could hardly judge the quick jump to hitting on someone just after meeting them. After all, she did have a certain waterbender’s phone number in her contact list as of a few days ago.

”Speaking of Coke, I don’t think the line’s getting any shorter.”

”Right, skating.” Ben mentally thanked Marlena a dozen times and moved back into the line. He needed the distraction from the conversation. He had been annoyed with Chase in the beginning but he had grown on him a bit. They had stuff in common.

”Don't sweat it. Future boyfriends got you covered.” Chase looked towards the line before him, feeling as the luck around him rose. ”Hey, new kid here's trying to use the bowl, y'all mind letting him go first?” At once the crowd looked towards Chase, then Ben, then decided to disperse to other ramps and grinds at the park, leaving them the only ones waiting. ”See? Just gotta ask nicely sometimes. Now go skate your little heart out.”

Ben looked up at Chase a little surprised, but smiled. ”Thanks.” He moved forward and dropped over the edge of the bowl, a proper acid drop. All the stress and freaking out that he had just gone through disappeared as his wheels hit the concrete. Ben had a regular set he liked to do, he had already done it once here before he had run into the others. But the comfort of the moves felt right, it was almost a form of meditation. Up and down the bowl he went. It wasn’t too long, not so as people would get annoyed waiting. He hit a couple of his kickflips better than normal. And he did a full 360 instead of what would normally be a 180, that had almost thrown him off but he was able to finish his set. He landed and was grinning. Feeling better with it. Of course it had been less spectacular than Marlena, but he didn’t have the powers to make the tricks she did work.

”Nice, man!” Marlena called out when he landed. She remembered struggling with kickflips once, they were always a good trick to see someone else pulling theirs off with ease.

”Kinda cute right?” Chase commented to Marlena as Ben began to skate. He watched him, focused, in his own world. It reminded him of…well himself. How he felt when he was on wheels. When Ben finished, Chase held out his hand in a fist bump. ”Sweet moves my Big Ben, I didn't know you could ride like that.”

Ben grinned and fist bumped Chase. ”Thanks. I’ve been skating for years, so I'm just new to town.” He looked over at his shoulder as the line started moving again the next person dropping in.

”How did that work? I’ve never seen a group of people lined up move aside like that before.”

”I never said what you were new to. Not my fault if they think I mean skating.” Chase flashed a smile at Ben, kicking his board up into his hand as he held them both up in a surrendering motion towards Marlena. He began to walk backwards, trying to pull on Lady Luck's might, but struggling to do so at first before he finally felt it click. ”No idea what you're talking about Mar, I simply just asked.” He dropped his board onto the ground stepping on it with his left foot as it hung off the edge of the bowl, facing away from it and towards Ben and Marlena.

Chase dropped down backwards, arms out wide as he let the momentum take him for a bit before he placed more weight onto the back, lifting the front of the board in the air as he swiveled out of fakie and into a normal ride. To those watching they'd see that Chase rode Mondo style, not typical or widely accepted, but neither was he. He ramped up the speed, flying off the side and grabbing his board as he got some air, performing an airwalk into quick kickflip before landing back down. Keeping momentum he shot back up into an Alley-Oop, landing just off where he'd wanted to and having his board snag the corner of the bowl and causing him to fall backwards. Shadows quickly enveloped him and spat him back out at Ben's feet. ”Look at that, already falling for you.” He managed to get out through winces before he laughed at his own failure.

”You do that often?” Marlena watched him teleport and eat dirt, and an amused grin was on her face. It was cool that superpowers could be used to ride in unique ways.

Ben rolled his eyes at the cheesy comment. But he offered his hand for Chase to help him back to his feet.

”With that landing I doubt it. Though, the rest was good.” He wondered if his own power could be used more for skating. He had found that it mostly was focused on combat while doing parkour but maybe he could expand it. His friends had messed around with that sort of thing but he hadn't gotten to test it out.

”Only when there's a cute boy around, so I guess there must be. Unless you mean slink in the shadows, that's a new trick and one I am very very fond of. It's helped me out more times –” Chase froze for a moment as fresh memories flooded back before he blinked them away. ” than I can count…Sorry must've hit my head harder than I thought. I'm gonna have a sit, go board if you'd like. Bowl’s all yours.”

”Going next.” Marlena dropped her board to the ground, gave it a kick and leapt onto it. Her knees bent down, pushing momentum into the board. Then, she popped the board up, and careened down the side of the bowl. She kept most of her weight low to the ground, and rose up as she neared the other end of the bowl.

When she began to ascend, Marlena let the laws of physics take the wheel. First, her momentum pushed the board towards her as she grabbed the nose. Second, she started to spin wildly. Like a tire rolling away, backflip after backflip. She pulled three before the wheels of her board hit solid ground once again, rolling away slowly.

As Marlena skated, Chase tilted his head up and looked at Ben, still standing behind him. ” Man she's so good. I haven't really been in my game lately, mind keeps wandering.” He paused, watching as invisible gears seemed to turn within Ben's mind. So…no relationships before huh?”

Ben watched Marlena, impressed again by how smooth she was in the bowl. He stood near Chase and when he spoke Ben looked down at him. ”She is good. Kind of wish I had seen her before she had powers. Just to compare. I’m sure she was still good though. That skill isn’t coming from any power.” He nodded to the question.

”None. Just my mates and I hanging out. There were some relationships in the group that went beyond just friends. But I never had anything. Not even what I’d consider a crush really.” He thought of his mates, he thought of the schoolmates. None really were interesting in that way. Danni came to mind.

”Not against a relationship. Not really. I just never found anyone I liked that way.”

”Makes sense I guess.” Chase stared forward towards the bowl, a part of him wondered what that was like, having no crushes. He'd had a few, gotten his heart broken a fair share of times and broken others as well. ”Yeah, she's got a good set, both for powers and skill. I wonder what else she can do.”

”Well, we all go to the same school now. I’m sure we’ll be seeing her around more. That competition was intense. Maybe next year we’ll see her on a team.” Ben was glad he hadn’t been in the competition. He would not have held up as well as the others. He wasn’t as good at fighting as half of them. The only thing he could have hoped to do was freak the competition out with bugs.

Chase laughed ”What? You don't want to compete in it too?” He leaned back onto his hands, staring up once more at the dark curly haired kid. In some ways he reminded him of an old friend. ”Suppose that means I'll be seeing you around more too. Maybe we'll even room together.”

”Not really. I believe there are other ways to be a hero. You don't have to fight to be one. My parents were heroes in their own way. My dad was completely human, but he saved lives.” Ben shrugged. Chatting with Danni had helped him realize this. He hadn't ever wanted to fight not really, but knowing there were other ways to be a hero felt right.

”Maybe. I won't know till the semester starts.”

”I don’t know, seemed fun though. Being able to let loose with your powers, hero or not. The money is certainly nice at least.” Chase knew Ben was adopted, recently too from the sounds of what he'd said back at the contest. He wondered how fresh that wound was, how vulnerable he would be willing to be? He didn't have any love left for his own late parents, not anymore, but it seemed Ben still did. ”What'd he do? Your dad I mean.”

”He was a pathologist,” Ben said after a moment of hesitation. Maybe if he hadn’t met Danni and already talked about this he wouldn’t have said anything. Or maybe since he knew Chase was adopted too he was willing to talk about it.

The only pathological thing about his parents was that they were liars. Chase's eyes darted away to the ground. ”A doctor? Damn, that is hero material huh?” It was clear he must've liked his father quite a bit, he wondered what that was like. ”What was it like going to school in Britain? Got funny uniforms or something?”

“He had a doctorate, but he considered himself a scientist.” Ben was wishing Marlena was done with her run. She was a buffer. But the change in subject was easier. He could talk about school.

”Yeah we had uniforms. They were pretty standard. Modern outfits. The school had a lot of normal people and a mix of students that might be something else. But the education was good. Better than what I've heard about here.”

Had Ben been holding Chase's hand, he would've felt how cold it ran the moment he mentioned his father being a scientist. A bit of panic ran in him, illogically asking himself if he was one of the ‘scientists’ he'd slaughtered. One of the many who poked and prodded and experimented on him. But it couldn't be, he was from England, too far away to be connected, yet his mind raced all the same. He realized he'd stayed quiet for too long, stayed in his own memories for too long. Chase cleared his throat. ”Yeah, the programs here can be really weird. My last school, the one I'm transferring from, has some weird ass program. They asked a lot of odd questions, made us watch videos for what felt like hours sometimes. Some sessions I barely remember. But, I bet you looked adorable in those uniforms.”

The sound of Marlena’s board cut in, as she swerved back over to them. She put one foot down on the ground and knelt down on the other. ”Are we sharing tragic backstories? I just got sent here from Brooklyn, personally. The weather's rough this time of year.”

”What was Brooklyn like? So far I’ve only been here and in New Orleans.” Ben hadn’t seen Marlena as he hadn’t gone to the after party. The different parts of the United States were so different. The place was massive. Each state almost a country on its own. Ben had seen so little of it he couldn’t be sure about any other part of it yet.

Chase scoffed at Marlena's interruption. Nothing against her, he actually found her (and Ben) nice to be around. ”What's so tragic about that? Brooklyn can't be all that bad and Cali's real nice. Skates great, Surfs great, got everything you could want. “

”Oh, Brooklyn’s nice. Wouldn’t trade it for the world. Imagine LA, but it snows more and there’s an island. It’s New York, so it’s bigger. Louder, but you get used to that.”

Chase looked towards Ben, then Marlena, then back at Ben, as a wicked idea formed within his mind. ”Maybe we can visit it sometime. No rents, no distractions, just us three and Marelna's usual spots for food, skate, and fun. Could try and go cross country, may take a bit but I think I can swing it.”

The idea of traveling cross country to go to a city Ben had never seen was a little thrilling. He had taken the tube and in general had a lot of freedom back home. His uncle was a bit stricter about things but maybe he would settle down. The US was new and different so he was willing to let some of the new restrictions stay for a while but Ben knew he would chaff under it eventually. His eyes widened at the prospect and he found he wasn't against the idea. It sounded cool and fun. And the US was so big there could be things to do as they made their way.

”That sounds wild. I'm in.” He agreed. It would have been something him and the mates would have done. Maybe a back packing trip eventually. They never wanted to be totally tethered. And there were so many new bugs to learn and meet in the US.

”Sounds fun. We’ll have to do that sometime, not soon though. My dad will lose his mind if he calls and I’m off in Narnia or suddenly back home.” Marlena did enjoy a good adventure. Her dad already had a few conniptions about the way she was out late at night. She didn’t want to give him a stroke.

Chase was dumbfounded. He hadn't exactly expected either of them to say yes. He worried if his powers could even take him that far given he'd never tried to jump states before. But he could always drive if he needed to, or hitch a ride in a train going the direction he'd wanted. There was one that took them from one coast to another. ”Sweet. Well let me know when soon is soon enough ok?” He looked towards Ben, thinking about how he may want to see some sights between locations too. National Parks maybe? Those were always cool, and it helped with orienteering a bit, not that he'd done so since the fall out.

Chase pulled out his phone, quickly typing a text over to Ben.

@Ben

”If Marlena can't make it, you wanna visit some National Parks over break? My treat. ❤️”

”I would have to get permission too. My uncle is here, waiting in the car for me. But I doubt he’d let me go right now anyway.” He pulled out his phone when it buzzed and looked at the text, he hadn’t been surprised that it was from Chase considering he had just used his own phone. He felt a little bad about texting a separate conversation right in front of her. He thought about it, it was still early in the break between Christmas and the start of the school year. That was in mid January. He sent a quick response.

@Chase

”Yeah, I still gotta get the green light. I'll hit you up after I chat with him.”

Marlena pulled her phone out to check the time. They were here a while, it seemed. ”I’m thinking… Maybe after things wind down at the school? Because it’s gonna be January soon, it’ll be a lot.”

Chase leaned back onto the palms of his hands, looking back up towards the sky. ”True. Guess there's a lot to do before then huh? Don't really got much time.” He ignored the buzz of his phone, Chase hadn't expected Ben to be so obvious and reply right away but here they were. While he was starting virtually a brand new life, he didn't have much to do if he was honest. Being incapable of sleep gave you an extreme amount of time to do things, he was also still within the same area of where he used to live to now so the ‘transition’ had been fairly painless.

”We’re still moving in and settling. My uncle moved too, he was in San Francisco before. But he can work from here.” They had unpacking to do.

”School starts on the 15th right?” Ben wasn’t sure what else to talk about with them but he did want to talk still. Chase obviously wanted to do something else. Ben couldn’t tell what Marlena wanted to do.

”Think so. I still need to figure out what I have to take and what I can get away with putting off.” Marlena sighed. ”Not looking forward to fighting someone, but I’m guessing that’s what they’ll make us learn.”

”Please, that's the easy part. Besides its probably fighting dummies or something. I don't think they'll condone kids fighting each other.”

”I dunno, the whole world watch some kids do that a few weeks ago,” Marlena noted. ”Should probably head back soon.”

”We literally met at a place where they summoned a god basically. They have some science stuff I’m going to take, not just fighting.” He glanced at Marlena, ”It was good to meet you and hang out. We should hang out again.” As awkward as it had been, he did like her company.

”We should. Won’t be hard to find me.” She grinned. ”Guess I’ll get moving. See you guys around, maybe?”

”See ya, Lena. I'll stick around a bit.” Chase looked over towards Ben to see what he'd do.

Ben waved, ”See ya.” He looked over to Chase. ”I’m down with sticking around a bit longer. Probably can’t be too much longer though, my uncle will want to go soon.”

Chase stood up and gave a gentle punch to Ben's bicep. ”Sweet. Wanna roll?”

”Yeah.” Ben grinned, wheels on the pavement was why he had come here after all.

Avengers Academy: X of Swords ⚔️

Andy had gotten a financial advisor. That alone was something she had never considered a thing she would use. But she was rich. She had sat down with them and quickly laid out some ideas. One of which was what she wanted to do right now. She was determined to get her friends some good gifts this year. Andy had never done that before. She also wanted to update her wardrobe. So she had part of the award money set aside for Christmas shopping.

It felt a little weird asking Percy, who she barely knew, to get Sabine and Leah to her. In exchange though, he got to hang out with Dorian. So it seemed to be alright. Andy wanted to spend some time with both Sabine and Leah. She was closer to Leah of the pair, but the friendship there was almost always in the ring. Not that Andy had an issue with that. But she was trying to build up better friendships and deeper bonds. Asking Percy had been Leah’s suggestion. So they asked and he said yes. She now stood on the porch and waited for him to show up with Sabine and Leah.

A second later, the trio materialized out of thin air on the street in front of Andy’s house. It was by no means Percy’s smoothest landing, as he was sent stumbling forward from residual momentum. His body was used to the strain of teleporting, even if cross country was a relatively new thing for him - but he eyed his two passengers, a little worried that he might have made them ill before they could begin their shopping trip. It wasn’t that different from a sudden, jerky landing from a plane.

He straightened himself up, fixing the collar of his shirt, before he cleared his throat. “Erm. Hello, Andy. Where am I taking you three next?” He didn’t particularly mind serving as a taxi for them. He and Leah had become somewhat close during their time in Jotunheim, and it was as good an excuse as any to come see Dorian, and a chance to practice his powers. He hadn’t meant for them to land in the street - he’d aimed for the sidewalk - but given the distance they went, he considered it to be within margin of error.

Leah ate the pavement.

She fell face-first into the concrete like a bug going splat on a windshield.

”Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

Sabine had, meanwhile, managed to stay upright, if somewhat woozy upon arrival. ”Give us a minute. That was….are you sure you’ve done that before Percy?” She took a few minutes to gather herself as she eyed Leah on the ground. ”We still got somewhere to be Leah, so suck it in and suck it up. We’re are we going?”

”I know… Fuck-” Leah clambered up to her feet and dusted herself off. She hated teleporting. ”I know there’s a pretty fancy mall here. I don’t really shop a lot, so I don’t know a lot about where people with a lot of money buy stuff.”

”Hey Percy.” Andy winced as Leah hit the pavement. Sabine did look a little green too. But the pair of them put themselves back together. As they did Andy said, ”Not sure yet, but just so you know, we’re going to be doing a big party for the last day of Hanukkah if you’re available.”

As for shopping options Andy would be little help in deciding on where to go. She had little experience when it came to shopping. She had both grown up poor in the foster care system and had lost seventeen years of time due to time travel. She had no idea what options there were.

After a few minutes of ensuring she was not about to unleash today’s breakfast, she considered. She was used to shopping, but both Leah and Andy were not. If they were going to do holiday shopping, they would do it correctly. ”Well, if you want your quintessential holiday shopping, you can’t beat New York City. Tons of holiday decorations and any store you can think of. Or if you are looking for a place for high-end gift giving, we could go to Rodeo Drive or the Champs-Élysées. Could also go to Michigan Avenue in Chicago or Regent Street in London. There’s tons of options.”

”Okay, let me think…” Leah did want to grab a few gifts for people other than herself. She fully intended to give them fancy rocks that fit them. But now that she had money to spend? She could do better than that. ”If Percy’s willing to make more than one trip, New York first and then Rodeo Drive? Then if there’s still time, do the other places?” All of the above, she figured.

Percy sighed slightly. He’d wanted to go spend time with Dorian without interruptions. He could make extra jumps, and at least staying on the East Coast for New York would be a little less taxing. He’d definitely need more caffeine. “Fine, I can do that. I won’t stay with you, though. You’ll have to call me when you need to be chauffeured to the next location.” He then paused for a moment. He hadn’t asked for any money for doing this - this was just a favor. “I also want coffee. Nice coffee.” He ignored Sabine’s comment about whether he was sure he’d done this before. She probably didn’t want to know that he’d only made this trip a handful of times before. He did, however, make a mental note of the Hanukkah party. That would be nice.

”You’ll get coffee so fancy that I’m not the one picking it,” Leah agreed. ”And books, because I’m nice like that.”

”I’ll help pick the coffee. I may not be as picky as Dorian, but I’m sure I can find something you’ll enjoy.” Andy was tempted to ask him what flavor profiles he liked. But decided against it, for now. ”So it sounds like we are going to New York first? I’m going to get a warmer jacket then.” Andy popped back into the house real quick and grabbed a thicker jacket, a puffy black one. She had no desire to wander around a place with actual snow on the ground without a jacket. The jacket still had her gloves in the pocket too. ”Ready.”

Sabine hadn’t been to New York in a while, but she remembered enjoying it, especially around the holidays. The decorations everywhere, the sheer number of stores within a few miles of each other. It would be perfect. They may not even need to go anywhere else.

Percy pulled out his phone, going into the maps function and pulling up views and photos of where he was taking them. He’d been to New York a few times before to visit his mame’s family, so it only took him a quick refresher. “Alright. Hold on,” he put a hand on Leah’s arm, avoiding direct skin to skin contact, and waited for the others to hold onto Leah. Once they were all making contact, he displaced them in space-time, the group of four emerging on a bustling New York street - with another bumpy but successful landing.

He wiped away a bit of sweat from his forehead, feeling for a moment the strain of moving himself and three others a few states over. “Call me when you are ready for the next place,” he requested, before he vanished.

”Thank you, Percy,” Andy said just before he disappeared. She pulled her gloves on and looked up and down the street. ”Alright, I don’t know New York City very well. Where do we want to be?” she asked Sabine.

Leah stumbled into a street lamp, and looked around. She hadn’t ever been here either. ”I’m guessing wherever has the most Christmas decorations lit up around, it right? Or the most traffic.”

Sabine merely shrugged. ”I can direct you to the wider area, but I want you both to decide where to shop. There’s literally stores for anything you can think of and there’s nothing wrong with going in to a place, looking, and walking out with nothing if there isn’t anything that catches your interest. I am open to wherever you want to go.”

”Well let’s go this way then.” Andy pointed as a large group of shoppers exited a store. ”We can start there.”

”Yeah, let’s do that. I’ll pick something after. Or try to.” Leah blinked the dizziness out of her eyes and ignored the stares of people who had never seen grey skin before. Then she took off in the direction of the store.

Sabine eyed the store. It was well decorated for the holidays with lots of lights, tinsel, and well-accentuated windows. The store itself was Bergdorf Goodman, a department store. As far as choices went, this was a good one. ”A good choice. They’ll have lots of stuff in here. Clothes, gifts, toys, you name it. They’ll probably even have a coffee place inside if you want to grab it for Percy. Lead on then.”

Andy’s shoulders relaxed a little at Sabine’s approval. She had no idea about the store at all, but with all those options it might even work as a single stop. Andy wanted to do Christmas shopping, but she didn’t want to stress about it. She led the way into the store and almost tripped over her own feet as she took the place in. It was fancy. Like fancy fancy. She was having sticker shock and hadn’t even looked at any of the price tags yet.

”Holy smokes. Uh, I suppose... Let’s look at the gift section first.” Andy looked around for signage that would indicate where they could find stuff like that.

Leah’s eyes were big as full moons for a minute. Everything was so shiny and glittery, it looked like she’d walked into some rich guy’s mansion. She was suddenly glad to not be the only person here. How did people do this?

”Yeah… Where is it, though?” That was a lot of signs. Holy shit, that was a lot of signs. Oh, there it was. Leah pointed off to the side. ”That way.”

Sabine was enjoying coming along for the ride. Seeing Andy and Leah fumble over themselves was all she needed this holiday trip (though she would, of course, be doing some shopping). ”There’s directories on every floor if you get lost. Or you can always ask someone who works here. But with it being Christmas they definitely have an area specifically for gifts for the holidays. You can tell because it will be the place in the store with the most decorations.”

Leah gave Sabine a most inscrutable look. ”Floors… As in there’s more than one? Oh, fuck me.”

Andy looked in the direction that Leah had pointed, there was a lot of extra holiday decorations there, and what looked like gift boxes. She started moving toward it. There was a lot of people. Her attention started bouncing around, keeping track of people, and the exits, she felt a little dizzy. Maybe she could blame that on the teleport from Percy. Her stomach twisted a little and she shifted from trying to pay attention to everything to focusing solely on the display.

A memory popped up, a winter day in DC, avoiding those machines that scanned people as they entered and beeped if the person was a mutant. That wasn’t here. She had hated those. It made everywhere unsafe.

Andy approached the display and looked it over. There were boxes of perfumes and bath kits and so many other boxes of mixed and matched things. It felt... impersonal. She was breathing a little fast.

”Who all are you guys buying for? I’ve got to get some Hanukkah gifts too.” She figured she should get something for everyone on the team, and all the old MU peeps she had seen, and of course her girlfriends.

”April, She Hulk, you two, Percy, pretty much everybody.” Leah squinted at some of the labels on this fancy stuff. Why would someone want to throw a bomb into a bathtub? That sounded dangerous. ”I’m gonna grab some stuff for myself too, but after.” She assumed a place as big as this was likely to have a bookstore, Percy would love that.

”I’m buying for everyone on our team, including Vicky. I’ll get something for the Kingston-Grey’s also. My father and stepmother can suck it for all I care. Apart from that, no one else really. And yes, buy for yourself too. You have treat yourself money now.”

”Yeah I want to get everyone on the team something. I was thinking something unified for that. Not sure yet. I should get something for Vicky too. Then my old MU friends, including the Kingston-Grey’s. God I know so many people suddenly.” Andy laughed, it was a nervous laugh as she was clearly either hyper focusing on something or her eyes were darting around the crowd. It was like she couldn’t decide how to deal with being in the building with so many people.

”Maybe avoid getting the same thing as someone else? Like I don’t know say I get the bath bomb for April, no one else do that? Not that I think I’d get a bath bomb for April. I barely know April I don’t know what to get her.” Andy was rambling a bit.

”April loves camping and anything pertaining to the ocean,” Leah offered. ”Board games are a good one, too.”

”There’s also no rules to any of this. If you get someone the same gift as someone else that’s not a bad thing. Bath bombs are nice but they are a single use item so if someone else got April a bath bomb, say, she’d have two, which is better. Look, I am happy to help you both along with this, but it’s shopping. No stress involved if you don’t want any. Like I said, look around, buy something if you think it will be a good gift, and if you don’t see anything we leave and go into a different store. Simple as.”

Leah nodded. ”If we get separated and can’t find each other, and the WIFI in here happens to suck, wanna meet at the front doors? I’m gonna go look for stuff.”

Andy nodded. No stress. Sure. Yep. She could do that. There was not going to be a Purifier coming into the store and trying to kill her. Did the Purifier’s even exist anymore?

”Can do. Front doors.” Andy nodded again. She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the sounds of all the people. ”If we’re splitting up I might listen to music.” Music made crowds tolerable. She liked concerts. If she just pretended this was a really weird concert, it would work.

Splitting up seemed like a good idea, but she hoped that Leah or Andy would be all right with shopping. ”All right, we split up. Meet at the front doors in, what, an hour or so? Should be enough time to look around at a few floors and so on. Plus, you know, phones. Good luck and happy shopping!” Sabine turned and made her way to the elevator. There was a floor she wanted and a gift she had in mind immediately.

”Sounds good. Also means I can get you two gifts without you knowing what I got you.” Andy smiled, it was a shaky smile. She put her ear buds into her ears and stepped around the table. She opened a note pad and wrote down everyone’s names that she could think might expect or want a gift or she thought might be giving her a gift.

Several people on the list she wasn’t certain on what to get them. She didn’t know a lot of the team well. Part of that was her fault, part of that was just that everyone had been thrown into the same team at the last minute. There was no going back now. This was their group for the rest of the time they were at AA. She smiled. She had a group of friends. She had made most of the friends by herself.

Andy started picking through all of the things that were around the store. She found a silk scarf that was various shades of pink that made her think of Sabine. She found a board game that was about different species of marine animals that made her think of April. She already had a gift for Dorian and Danny. She found a book, an updated version of Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton; it had a lot of annotations by modern scholars. That was for Percy. And so on she went looking until an alarm she set for one hour beeped. At that point she headed back to the entrance. They could hopefully wait in line together. The music had helped with keeping calm and as she had gotten into the flow of things she had sort of lost herself in the shopping. She could see why people liked this when they weren’t in the Christmas crowd.

Leah took off and spent a great deal of time pondering her choices. She considered herself a strategist, and applied that here. She knew Sabine’s favorite color was red, that she was far better at being fashionable, and she enjoyed dancing. So she snagged a few pretty things. There was an aisle that had posters from dance performances she recalled Sabine talking her ear off about a few times. There were even a few with that Broadway girl Sabine couldn’t get enough of. For April, she found a rare edition of Twister. It was She Ra themed, and Leah knew other people understood that. Then she found herself surrounded by the clothing section. And that part haunted her.

Leah was awful at fashion. She wore Carhartt to the beach. But she definitely knew a thing or two about what did and didn’t fit Sabine. She’d seen that on the floor enough. Granted, she didn’t fuck most of her friends, so she played it safe: Ugly Christmas sweaters. One with a ghost on it that said Never Too Late for Halloween. A reindeer drinking eggnog. A joke about gingerbread houses and gingerbread men. They were corny and she actually found herself amused by them. Then came books, quite a few books. Then came pastries and snacks and other edible things Leah would not have dreamed of touching before she had this kind of money.

Sabine had made her way up to the jewelry department. She had decided she would get Leah something, but she knew Leah did not care about fashion and name brands. Sabine wanted to get her something though, something that said she thought about Leah. As she looked around the various necklaces, bracelets, and rings she saw something that caught her eye. A charm bracelet. Leah may not care much for jewelry, but she knew Leah cared about making memories, deciding for herself what she chose to memorialize and what she would forget. This way, Leah could add to it whenever she pleased. She had the salesperson grab it and opted for the silver one. She chose two charms with it: one was the French flag (a symbol of Sabine) and the other was a waterfall (a symbol for April). Despite them no longer being together, Sabine wanted to remember the good times. If anything, the relationship was formative for their future. She had the salesperson wrap it up nice. Once she was satisfied she made her way to the front doors. She had other gifts to buy, but she knew which stores she would go to to obtain them.

Andy smiled as the others rejoined her. She paused her music and pulled the ear buds out. ”I still need to check out. But otherwise I think I’m done at this store.”

”Yeah, got all I’m getting from here. ‘Bine, you weren’t kidding. They had damn near everything.” Leah had a lot of shit by the time they met back up. ”Let’s go pay for stuff then grab Percy.”

Sabine chuckled softly. ”I paid already. Department stores have registers on every floor. You guys go on ahead and pay, I’ll wait here. Also decide if we are continuing to shop in New York or want to move elsewhere. I am good either way.”

”Let's stay in New York for now?” Andy said before moving off to find a register and checking out. It did take some time because there was a line. Though because of there being so many operating it went faster than Andy would have expected.

”Sounds good.” Leah sauntered off with her pile of gifts and rang up. The total was about $1000, which was actually less than she expected out of this place. She wasn’t gone long, some people actually let her go ahead of the line because of how easily recognizable she was from the contest.

She quickly spammed a text at Percy before meeting back up with the others.

@Percy

Earthbender: weres taying in nuc fkr ow so if you got something planenr wndorian gonabead

Earthbender: thankd for tp btw

”Okay…” Leah stuffed her phone away and hoisted some rather heavy-looking bags. ”Ready to look for somewhere else?”

@Leah

Dear Leah,

I have the mutant power to comprehend easy language. I only need to hear or read a few words in order to speak it. This includes dead languages, as well as invented ones. In my life, I have only encountered one language that I could not comprehend: the inscription on my watch, gifted to me by Agatha Harkness.

And now, I have the good fortune to have encountered a second one.

What in the world are you trying to say?

Sincerely,
P. Novikov

Once all three of them had re-gathered at the door, Andy pulled her gloves back on. She didn’t need them to protect her from touching someone on accident. She did however need them to keep her fingers from freezing off.

”Ready?” Back out into the blistering cold the three of them went. So many of these stores seemed like just clothing stores. She supposed that shopping at a clothing store was fine for herself. But since she wanted to get gifts and clothes often felt... impersonal to her, she wasn’t sure where to go next.

”I picked the last place. Someone else’s turn.”

”Go for it Leah. I know my way around here, but I am curious what store speaks to you. There’s tons to choose from.”

That legendary stonefaced look found itself on Leah’s face. How was she supposed to know where anything was?!

Normally, she might have just gone to a damn Goodwill or something. But… She didn’t want them to think she was being difficult. So she sat down on a bench and grabbed her phone once again, and started looking at stuff in the area. As she thought about it, she came to the decision that she’d want to go to another place with a lot in one area.

”Hm… Herald Square’s not far from here. Let’s do that.”

”Alright, sounds good.” Andy smiled, she didn’t know the way. She had only lived in upstate New York. ”Which way?”

It was like babysitting toddlers. ”You both have phones. You know you can get directions on there right? Thankfully, I know the way.” She started walking, allowing for them to follow. ”If there’s a store you see on the way that you want to go in, just say so. There’s tons of places to check out. Plus, we need to keep an eye out for some coffee for Percy.”

”I did just look up the directions on my phone,” Leah sassed. ”Next block over.”

Andy stuck out her tongue at both of them. ”Sure I’ll just look at my phone when I know that Leah did just look and Sabine knows the area.” She teased. Andy followed Sabine. ”The last time I spent any time in New York it was 18 years ago, and I was in Rochester.”

”Yeah, I’ve been here a few times. Family came every year during the holidays until recently.” She was used to the hustle and bustle of the city. Every major city was like this even outside of the holidays.

”I used to get dragged around the planet a lot,” Leah chimed in, walking with them. ”Never to places like this, though. Mostly places a few dozen floors off the ground or somewhere that everyone was wearing a suit that cost six digits. This is the first time I’ve been to New York in particular.”

Andy considered both of these new data pieces about her friends. She had not told people a lot about herself until more recently. She decided to open up a little.

”When I first came to New York state I was sure I’d eventually come to the city. That I’d be able to melt into the crowds and get forgotten in the hustle and bustle. But I never made it here. And soon there were these machines at the entrance to most high end stores. They were like metal detectors but they’d scan people and if you were a mutant it would go off and then law enforcement would show up. I was so afraid of getting picked up and put back in the system or ended up in a high max place.” She shivered at the thought.

”That’s pretty fucked up. No wonder you did the time travel thing with Zari.” Leah imagined she’d just beat someone over the head in that situation, but then again, she was neither a mutant nor in that situation. It was probably way worse than she imagined.

Sabine had known about this, of course. In her conversations with Max he had mentioned that sort of thing. Plus, she grew up around people who made horrible comments about mutants. The fact she had abilities of her own, somehow connected to mutants but apart from them also, made her never want to have a voice in the conversation. ”I would like to say things have gotten better, and they have to an extent, but like all bigotry, there’s still horrible people around. But today, we are with friends and celebrating a wonderful time of year.”

Andy nodded in agreement. ”I am happy here. This is a good time. I don’t think any time is perfect, but there have been some pretty great people here.” She gently bumped Sabine’s shoulder and elbowed Leah.

”Yeah, I’m glad you’re here and not whenever the fuck that was.” She grinned.

Sabine approached their destination, but left it up to Leah and Andy to determine where they wanted to go. This was their shopping trip. ”All right, we’re here. Leah, it’s still your turn so, go nuts.”

”I’m going to Macy’s, then Sears if I don’t forget. You know, maybe we should’ve bothered Max about one of those magic bags that Dorian has. He has something that just teleports things he puts in it back home.”

”Damn that would be useful for this. I was also thinking Macy’s It is another department store, like the last place we were just at. We can split up again.”

Sabine merely shrugged. If Macy’s was what they wanted, then Macy’s was what it would be. ”Fair enough, I will probably find the coffee place there and get a pick me up. The rest of my gifts are more specialized. But you two go nuts. Check out the holiday shop. It’s full of cute decorations for all the holidays.”

”I’ll go there too. After I buy two, maybe three huge tote bags to dump all these smaller bags into.”

”That’s a good idea.” Andy nodded and headed into the store. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to get here. She still hadn’t gotten gifts for Leah or Vicky. She had no idea what to get either of them really. Vicky she didn’t know super well. Leah she at least knew, but the things that came to mind for her weren’t something Andy thought she could find in a Macy’s. But there was likely to be something.

As she stated, Sabine headed for the coffee place within Macy’s, located on the ground floor. She ordered a caramel macchiato and made her way to a table. She scoured a catalog she saw on her way there in case she was wrong and could find something for the others here. As she did, she remembered spending time at various stores when her parents took her. Sitting on Santa’s lap, watching the windows, and marveling at the themes every year. Now she was in a position of finding new holiday memories to form.

Leah went straight in, a bit comfortable doing this now. First came some reusable tote bags, she got three of the biggest ones possible. Then, several of the smaller bags she was carrying went straight in. She spent ten, maybe fifteen minutes looking through clothing racks and was pleasantly surprised to find that some things were actually made for people as tall and huge as her. Normally, fashion didn’t matter to her, but these days, it wasn’t easy to wear her old stuff without something being torn. She told herself she’d make some effort to be considerate towards herself today, and that consideration was now fulfilled. As she walked out of the clothing section, she found herself surrounded by the jewelry. Someone gave her a poorly disguised look of tension, seeing someone so damn massive just strut around all the glass cases. But, thankfully, Leah wasn’t that airheaded. Her eye was caught by some of the pretty things, though. They were by no means the sort of thing she paid much mind to, but a thought occurred to her.

So she got someone’s attention and had them box up a metal chain with a pink-red hue. Rose gold, according to him. He asked Leah if she’d like it to be decorated, but she declined. She had an idea for that, and it made her a bit giddy to do it. A surprise for Christmas day. Next was Sears, where Leah got herself a pair of winter gloves, because her hands were actually really fucking cold. After the Jotunheim situation, she was taking that a bit more seriously. And, one day, she wanted to go back a bit more prepared. Leah swung by another aisle near the front and saw some coffee packs. She did say someone else would pick that, but then again, it looked like the fancy stuff.

So Leah walked over and grabbed three different packages of completely different ones. Then she checked out and turned down the street. Only to find a small music store just two spots down. Leah’s curiosity got the better of her and she went in. It was a lot of old stuff, and immediately she thought of Andy and Vicky. They had fucking CDs and cassettes. Leah got several, since she miraculously recognized a few of the labels on them. And she knew those two would as well.

A little over an hour went by before she met up with them, loaded up on stuff.

”I never want to hear anyone say money doesn’t buy happiness again.” She gave Sabine a devious, ominous grin.

Andy’s wanderings took her up and down through the stores. She found herself buying random things that she thought people might like, and even a few things for herself. Andy hadn’t had a lot to spend on herself most of her life. Since she grew up in the foster system. The closest she had ever come to being able to get whatever she wanted was while she was living on Genosha, and there money didn’t even exist. It was a nice change of pace. When the hour was almost up she headed for the cafe, knowing that that was where Sabine had gone to wait for them. She had decided what to get Leah, but that was a special order, not something Macy’s carried.

”Hey,” Andy sighed, she looked a little on the tired side. ”I think I’ve gotten everything and everyone covered now. Do you still want to keep going? Or head back to New Orleans?”

”I think it’s Sabine’s turn.”

Andy turned to Sabine and raised an eyebrow, ”Up to you then.”

Sabine wanted this moment for the two of them, not for her. She was content as she was. ”Well, I can do the rest of my shopping back in California, so if you both are done why don’t we go do something fun to end this trip? We can go ice skating in central park or go see all the lights in Time’s Square? Also, did anyone pick up something for Percy as thanks for all this?”

”Of course I did. Speaking of, here…” Leah shook one of the tote bags she had, and another one fell out, into her hand. She tossed one in Andy’s direction. Then another in Sabine’s. Way easier to carry stuff with these, she found. ”Got him a bunch of fancy ass coffee packs. I have no idea how to ice skate. Anyone willing to laugh and watch me fall on my face?”

”I got something for him, yes.” Andy placed her stuff into the extra bag from Leah. ”Thank you, Leah.” Andy smiled, she had never gone ice skating either. ”I’m down for ice skating. I’ve never done that before either so we can fall together.”

Sabine kept her mouth shut that she had been ice skating multiple times, ”All right, let’s head over there.” It wouldn’t be a long trek, but the foot traffic and cars would make the journey a little bit annoying. ”After this we can go back to New Orleans.”

”Sounds good. I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but I cannot wait to go home, wrap stuff up and celebrate goddamn Christmas by giving people stuff.” If someone told her she’d be doing this a year ago, Leah would look at them like they had three heads.

”Heh, isn’t that a wild thing.” Her last Christmas had been... awful. This year was shaping up to be basically perfect as far as she was concerned. She had a roof, a family, and friends. She had never had all of that before. It felt so good.

”When we get back, I’m sitting next to the heater for an hour.” She was cold, and very glad that she had picked up a heavier winter coat, and had her gloves on.

Central Park was always bustling, but today it was more so. The cold kept some people away, but the skating rink had a decent amount of people there. It was also decorated to celebrate the holidays with lights all over the trees and a big Christmas tree in the middle. ”Ok, let’s rent some skates and get going. I’ll walk you through it. It’s like riding a bike!” Which, as far as she knew, neither Andy nor Leah knew how to do also.

”Oh, good, I’ll just learn that real fast,” Leah snarked, heading over to the rental place and finding some that she could wear.

Andy snorted at Leah’s comment. She was, in fact, in the same boat. She didn’t know how to ride a bike. She found a pair of skates a lot easier than Leah though. It was easy enough renting them, handing over her current shoes, and then getting those tied on. She watched the kids and adults already skating, trying to get an understanding of the movements involved in skating. Andy could tell she would definitely hurt herself at some point during this little excursion. But that was okay, it was going to be fun.

”We’d have to find a bike big enough for you. I don’t even think mountain bikes would work.”

”Probably not. I’m only six-one, not that big, but it took some getting used to.”

Sabine had entered the skate park and moved around some, gliding through. She made her way back as Leah and Andy got ready. ”Want to hold my hand through this? It’s easy! You just have to distribute your weight without going too far forward or back.”

”Fair enough,” Andy shrugged at Leah’s comment. Andy raised an eyebrow, unsure if Sabine was offering her hand for both of them or just Leah.

Leah waddled over, skates on, like a damn penguin. ”Maybe. I might be able to…”

She leaned forward and planted one of her feet on the ice, and let momentum carry her in. She floated forward and kept her arms out. And, surprisingly, didn’t eat the ground.

”There you go! You got this!” The fact Leah was upright was a Christmas miracle. ”All right Andy, offer is still there if you need a hand.”

Andy was competitive at heart. She grinned as Leah stepped onto the ice. ”If I eat it, I eat it.” She shrugged and joined Leah on the ice. Andy wobbled a little, but apparently her paying attention to the other people on the ice had paid off. She was surprisingly good at it despite having never ice skated before.

”Oooookay. I’m on ice and not on the ground…” Leah looked over at Sabine. ”Now what?”

”Now we skate!” Sabine started moving around the rink in a circle, slow enough for Andy and Leah to catch up. ”You got the hang of it, now you just need momentum.”

Andy laughed, it was a bright and clear laugh. She started to move. The simple attempts of someone who had never skated before. She was surprised at how quickly she picked it up though. Andy had always been a bit of an athlete. It hadn’t been until she had met the Drummonds that she became a trained athlete. But even as a kid she had been quick on her feet. She had mutated at eight, that probably helped a lot.

“This is delightful.” She wondered if there was another place like this in L.A., indoors obviously, that she could skate at more.

”Momentum. Okay…” She looked over at Sabine, then turned one foot perpendicular to the other. Then, she pushed forward and put all her weight on that leg. It worked, and she started gliding forth.

”Woah- Oh fuck, fuuuuck-”

She collided with a wall and nearly tumbled over. She pushed off again, and this time tried leaning to one side to steer. ”Am I doing this right?” This was fun, actually.

”Well, you aren’t supposed to run into walls typically, but yeah, you got it. Eventually you’ll be able to move more easily. Now, get ready to turn. Lean a little towards where you want to turn and make sure your feet move in that direction, putting a bit more weight on the foot closest to the turn.”

Andy started carefully trying to find balance on one foot as she moved. She was wobbly, but after a few practice attempts she was able to slide along on one foot. She listened to Sabine's directions as well, leaning into the turn of the ring. She was being passed by superior skaters and that made her want to improve even more.

“How much ice skating have you done, Sabine?”

Leah nodded and tried to do exactly as Sabine instructed. Lean forward to the left, then push her foot left… And it did work. She leaned left and went swerving left. A smile was plastered over her face. She was basically standing still, yet moving anyway. It was new, odd and pretty damn fun.

”Holy shiiiiiiii_{iiiiiiiiiiit.”} Leah’s voice tapered off as she disappeared into the other end of the ice like a dog in a park.

Sabine laughed, shaking her head at Leah’s antics. ”Quite a bit. We came to New York a lot for the holidays growing up so I learned young. Apart from that, I’ve gone every now and then back in France. Haven’t done much since moving here.”

”If none of us break a limb and have to go visit James, want to do it more often? I’m sure we can find an indoor rink that rents out to dumb teens.” Andy giggled, watching Leah zip off.

While they were shooting the shit, Leah was just going in circles. Long, lazy circles as she worked on getting the hang of this. She was moving awfully fast, too. As if eating a chunk of ice wasn’t on her mind. She was racing around the rink like a mutant speedster that got their powers days ago.

If one listened closely, they could hear laughter.

Sabine thought she heard something, but figured it was some child enjoying the ice. ”I’d like to do it more, sure. I’m glad you both took to it. This time of year can be hard, but I’m grateful to have people to spend it with.”

Andy smiled sadly. This was her first Christmas in this time, in the future. She had lost so much and left even more behind.

“Yeah, it is a rough time of year. Thank you for spending it with me.”

The trio spent some time skating, enjoying themselves. When they were finally worn out enough, Leah messaged Percy that they were ready for pick up. They gave him coordinates and after a bit he transported them back to New Orleans. In New Orleans, they exchanged gifts for the ones that were there. Andy gave Sabine the multi-colored pink scarf and let Leah know that her gift was shipping, it was an extra durable punching bag. Sabine gave Leah the bracelet. Leah’s gift for Sabine is an amethyst that she shaped and set on the necklace she had bought, however, since her rock collection was back in L.A. she couldn’t give it to Sabine right now. Sabine let Andy know her gift would be later. Percy was given a metric ton of coffee. The group ate a meal and warmed up, before they headed back to L.A., Andy staying behind at home.

Avengers Academy: X of Swords ⚔️

TuHo's Mega Market was Danni's favorite place to shop for food in the area. Filling up an old warehouse, TuHo barely paid enough to have the mandatory equipment in the place: at least one cooler was always broken, the restrooms were poorly maintained, there were sixteen ceiling fans and only one worked, the AC blew hot in the summer and cold in the winter, and the list went on. Thinking about it only made Danni want to look closer so Danni chose not to think because in the year he'd known TuHo's, Danni had never been disappointed in the quality. The seafood was always fresh, meat properly cut and sealed, veggies and fruit were plump and perfect, and if it was an international delicacy, TuHo's was guaranteed to stock it. Danni had his doubts when he was first introduced to it. A stray comment on a video he posted where he had only found old stale Ajwin to work with directed him to TuHo's. A little research and a lot of support from local followers and Danni had braved the certainly roach infested supermarket.

Now, Danni didn't shop anywhere else if he could avoid it.

And today was a particularly special trip. Danni's plan to showcase his awesome friends started off with Leah who, without begging Danni would like to state for the record, reached out to him about hanging out in the kitchen. He hadn't expected her to agree when he put out recording a cooking challenge video and when she added spicy to the challenge, Danni could have fallen in love. So, here he was to see if he could get his hands on some of the spiciest peppers on the scale: The Carolina Reaper, The Dragon's Breath, and The Trinidad Scorpion. Danni was practically shaking with excitement when he approached, nearly running into the automatic door before he realized it wasn't working. A shabbily written sign pointed to the regular door next to it. Danni shrugged and opened it.

As expected, the holiday music over the speakers was tinny and low. The place smelled like produce and burlap bags and grease. Danni could feel his pores clogging but it was worth it. TuHo's hadn't failed him before and it certainly wouldn't fail him now. He beelined it first for produce. It was unlikely they had them fresh since they technically required special handling, but this was TuHo's. They probably didn't care!

Matt had dragged Ben out of the house. This had included a series of requirements and promises in exchange for coming shopping with him. First Ben had to take a damn shower. Second Matt promised that once everything was put away back in the fridge and freezer at home Matt would take Ben to a skate park. Ben was itching to get out and about on his skateboard again. Matt for some reason didn’t think children should be unsupervised.

Matt, however, was busy comparing ingredients of some canned food. Ben had found that when Matt got distracted in such ways he could slip away. This store was massive and Ben wondered how the heck someone who did not grow up or live in Los Angeles had found this store. Matt and Ben were both from London. Matt had lived in the US for some years, mostly while working with S.H.I.E.L.D. To Ben’s knowledge Matt had spent most of that time in San Francisco.

They wouldn’t even be living in LA if Matt hadn’t met an ex-coworker of his while at the Contest. Ben, hands in pockets, wandered the isles trying to find anything that looked familiar. All the food in this store was so different from what he was used to. He just wanted some Jammie Dodgers and tea. American tea was unhinged. They overcomplicated it. Just heat up some damn water and put a tea bag in it. Why the heck was there ten ingredients in tea?

Ben ended up in the produce section. Even that was weird. There were some veggies and fruits he had never heard of. His home store had had plenty of variety but this place had several types of things that Ben hadn’t even been aware had different types. Like what was even a plantain? It looked like a banana.

Danni frowned at the typical assortment of pepper red and yellow and green to spare. He didn't want dried stuff, he wanted fresh stuff! He didn't want Leah to think he was lame ‘cause he got bad peppers. Danni huffed quietly to himself, continuing on and staring intently at each and every label just in case and only barely caught himself as he nearly ran into someone standing and staring at plantains. Danni went to apologize but stopped short, peering at the kid in question. He seemed familiar, but Danni couldn't quite put his finger on it. Maybe it's because he was looking at the side of his face so Danni leaned in front of the plantains and then beamed.

“‘eeeeeey! You're t'at guy I almost ran into at t'e Contest! Fancy runnin’ inta your ‘ere! It's like you're stalking me!” Danni laughed. “You live ‘round ‘ere t'en? You already know where I'm stayin’ most of t'e year. You t'inkin’ ‘bout doin’ somet'in’ wit’ t'ese? Pretty good all fried up. Not too sweet, a little better t'an a potato chip, t'ough tostones are delicious too. T'ough, if we're talkin’ chips, I prefer beet chips tbh, so pretty and delicious! ‘a you ever ‘ad t'em? They sell a good brand of t'em ‘ere so you should get t'em! My taste is fire so you'll like ‘em, I can tell!” Danni sneezed softly, a high pitched, soft sound.

“Oh gosh, and let me know if you want some cologne tips. I don't like it too much, but Dee really does so I can get ya some recs so you don't ‘ave ta wear t'at stuff. It's genuinely a terrible product, Axe, but everyone's gotta start somewhere. I'll ‘elp ya get ahead. Say, ‘ave ya seen any Carolina Peppers? Or Dragon's Breath? Or a Trinidad Scorpion? I gotta guest on my channel t'at likes t'e spice and it'd be lame if I got t'e dried stuff and not t'e fresh stuff. I know, I know safety but I ‘andle fire on a regular so I should be fine wit’ t'is yeah? I t'ink so and even if I'm not immune I'm tough. I won t'e Contest! Oh, ‘ey, did you like it? What did you t'ink? Where you t'ere just ta watch? Oh, do you watch my channel? Oh, are ya gunna come join t'e school too?”

Ben took half a step back when HotShot leaned into his personal space looking at his face. He did recognize him immediately. He tried to follow what he was saying, and asking him but between the strong accent and talking faster than Ben thought anyone had any right to talk he wasn’t totally sure what happened.

Ben had attempted to say something at least three times and finally gave up. He didn’t even know where to start with answering any of the questions that HotShot had asked him. Ben wasn’t certain what the guy’s actual name was he just remembered the lineup. And even that had been a vague memory. It was easy to place this guy though because of how he had almost collided with him in the stands.

”Yeah. That was me. I’ll be honest I don’t know what you’re talking about since you seem to be talking at two times speed. But uh...there were some peppers over there.” Ben gestures to a few bins he had passed. While near them his eyes had watered.

”Yeah, I live near here. Just moved here. I knew my Uncle moved us close to the school, but I didn’t realize it was so close you could just come here. I will be starting there next year. ” Ben shrugs not sure how to explain everything without going into more detail than anyone could actually care about.

“Yeeeees, t'at's exactly what I'm lookin’ for!!!” Danni cheered, dragging Ben over with him. He donned the gloves provided and started sifting through peppers. “Don't worry. You'll get used to it. I know, t'e accent makes it ‘ard for people ta keep up wit’ me so it's chill. And you'll love t'e Institute! Super fun. It was our dream school as kids and t'en once we got in, we knew we ‘ad ta do t'e contest toget’er. We've only ‘ad a villain try ta kill us once and even t'en, we won! And ‘onestly, club accommodations are ten outta ten would in fact, recommend. It's a blast!” Danni settled on two of each, sealed them away safely, and plopped them into his basket.

“Oh, ya know, idk your name. You know mine, obviously. Danni, ‘otShot, Cutest member of Excelsior, most photogenic, best cook, etc. Its funny runnin’ into ya again.” Danni chuckled at the joke, elbowing the other gently.

Ben allowed himself to get dragged along, though he didn’t care for the intense nature of the peppers that he was now standing near. Danni, thank god he finally knew the guy’s actual name and not just the code name. He really hadn’t remembered what it was. Ben didn’t want to come off as rude, aloof sure, but rude wasn’t really what he liked to be.

”I’m Ben Moss.” He paused and then looked at Danni really confused. ”I’m sorry did you say a villain tried to kill you already? I was supposed to go to Braddock, but because of...moving here I’m obviously not.” Ben seemed to have changed what he was going to say.

“Oh, yeah, totes. It kinda comes wit’ t'e territory, ya know? Powerful ‘eroes, powerful villains, and t'en everyone t'inks t'at just ‘cause we're kids, we're easy push overs. We got sucked into a virtual trainin’ machine, trapped ina deat’ game, and timey-whimey stuff ‘ad ta ‘appen or we would be dead! And a buncha t'e group got upsetti ‘bout it but we're all briethin’ and t'at's what counts!” Danni wrapped his arms around Ben's shoulders and steered him to the pasta isle.

“So, what's your deal, Ben. Tell me ‘bout you. Wantcha want for t'e future, whatcha see yourself becomin’, whatcha do in your free time, whatcha t'ink about angel ‘air pasta and standard spaghetti?”

Ben was confused. Why in the world was this guy who he barely knew dragging him around the store? He glanced around and didn’t see his Uncle Matt anywhere. Hopefully he still hadn’t noticed that Ben had left him alone. Ben didn’t want to admit it but he liked Danni. It wasn’t like when Chase had sort of forced himself into talking with him at the Contest. Danni was nice. Even if he did talk a mile a minute.

Ben was still processing the whole actually died part of what Danni had told him. Ben had almost died. Had gotten so close and if he hadn’t gone through terrigenesis he would have. Thinking about the future hadn’t really been something he had considered, even before that.

He shrugged. ”Honestly, before moving here I didn’t have a lot of plans. I was just going to go to Braddock with some of my mates. We were all supposed to go through terrigenesis together. But that didn’t work out. Now I live with my Uncle.”

”Free time though.” Ben smiled. ”I’m really into skateboarding, parkour and insects.” He said the last one a little nervous. ”My mates back home, we all skateboarded and did parkour together all the time. London was perfect for it. We sometimes got into trouble because we were in places we weren’t supposed to be, but we didn’t care. We just wanted to have fun. We weren’t trying to mess with anything.” Ben spoke with a bit of longing. He missed it, missed his friends.

”Uh...angel hair pasta is good for lighter sauces. If you have a heavy sauce you should use the standard one.”

“Oooh, good answer, good answer! Someone knows t'eir stuff!” Danni booped Ben on the nose. “Skateboardin’? T'at's cool! I got good balance in t'e air and on t'e ground, but add wheels inta t'e mix? Yeeeeesh, can't even rollerblade and tbh, bikin’ is also a spooky t'in’ ta me. Thankfully, parkour isn't really a t'in’ I gotta deal wit’ since airtime and all. Barely ‘ad any control at t'e beginning of t'e year and now ‘ere I am, zippin’ ‘round wit'out a care in t'e world. Except in specific airspace. Didn't realize people owned t'e sky, but ‘pparently lots o’ cities don't like it too much when ya fly around over'ead. Or military bases. Or t'eme parks, which I t'ink is wierd. Why can't I fly over and just drop in for photos wit’ a character and t'en blast back out? Disappointing. And little creepy crawlies is your jam? Back ‘ome in New Orleans, we got lost of people who like ta sell pretty beetles, butterflies, moths, and stuff all pinned up, you mean like t'at.”

Danni grabbed a thing of angel hair and a thing of spaghetti and, just for fun, some penne pasta. “Also, I realized ya said Braddock but idk what Braddock is and t'en you said a really big word, Teriogentresis or somet'in’ like t'at. Sounds spooky tbh.” Danni peered at the different rice bags. “Hmmm, big bag or small bag. Do you t'ink a giant will make a big spicy dish or a small spicy dish, Ben?”

Ben was starting to get used to the flow of how Danni talked. Not just his accent, but also how he bounced around in the conversation. He didn’t always respond in order, but that was okay. Ben realized that he might be responding in the order he thought was most important. He couldn’t be sure. Danni definitely liked food and cooking. The nose boop had been weird and Ben had almost tripped over his own feet when Danni had done that, but he hadn’t and he was proud of himself for that. He considered what order to respond to Danni in and decided he would respond in the order he cared about most.

”I don’t like dead insects.” Ben harrumphed. ”That’s just sort of cruel. I mean I suppose it can be fine if you find them dead, but if people kill them to do that it is messed up.”

”I’ve always been into entomology. But after I went through terrigenesis,” he said it slowly so that Danni could hear the word right this time. ”I could sort of control insects, which is really neat. I can talk to them now. Terrigenesis is how inhumans get their powers. I don’t have an X gene. I’m an alien sort of. I mean my grandparents and their parents were all born in London, so not like actually from another planet, but my grandparents are inhuman and my mom was. So is my uncle. I’m not a mutant. We get exposed to the mists and that causes us to change and get our powers.” He explained.

”As for Braddock Academy it is in Wales. Our team was the Knights of X.” He paused, ”Their team... They were in the contest. I never went there so not really ‘our’ team.” He had spent so long planning on going to Braddock that thinking of it not as his school was something he needed to get used to.

”Uh, giants like a lot of food right? So a big dish?” Ben didn’t like spicy food so he was glad he wasn’t going to be eating this dish made by a giant.

“Big bag, big bag, big bag…” Danni eyed his brand options, picked a familiar one, and threw that in the cart before continuing down the next aisle. “‘ow did I make anot'er friend t'at says so many big words? Its wild ‘ow I find y'all. And I don't t'ink we went against an X team. I would ‘ave def remembered an X team. And- Oh, shit, sale on spices yeeeees.” Danni shook Ben in his excitement as they neared the wall of jars, a Buy 2, Get 1 Free sign. He grabbed paprika, cumin, thyme, coriander, cumin, basil, oregano, salt, pepper, cayenne, and several more off the shelf.

“Okay spices aside, I never really t'ought ‘bout it. We don't ‘ave any bugs in our ‘ouse at ‘ome and I t'ink most places just bug spray everyt'in’ so much t'at t'e buggies just don't come ‘round. I see your point t'ough. I don't want Dee or Rillie or any of my friends ended up in a picture frame wit’ a big ol’ needle t'in'y t'rough t'em.” Danni replied thoughtfully. “And you can talk wit’ t'e bugs? Gosh, you gotta ‘ave all t'e best gossip. When you spill tea, it's gotta be scaldin’! T'ough, startin’ off wit’ t'e somet'in like t'e alien/not-alien t'in’ is difficult ta top. I just - gettin’ all gassed up is onet'in’ but t'at process sounds scary. You like, good besides your powers stuff?”

Ben took a moment to parse through what Danni had said. ”Well your team didn’t go against them because they were eliminated earlier in the bracket, they were on the other side of the bracket anyway. You basically never would have gone against them unless for some reason Young Avengers hadn’t won their bracket. The Young Avengers beat them in the second round.”

”Who are Dee and Rillie? And a lot of people spray for bugs. I get it. But bugs are super important for the environment.” Ben had gone over the rant a dozen times but he bit it back right now. ”Anyway, maybe I’ll start a business where I just ask all the bugs to leave people’s homes. Though it won’t work for spiders because they aren’t insects technically.” He shivered. ”Spiders freak me out. Can’t talk with them. Honestly, bugs are not the best conversationalists. I can get basic things out of them but they don’t like have long memories or remember stuff.” Finally Ben was at Danni’s last question and he really didn’t totally understand it.

”I don’t really understand what you’re asking. I mean I was raised here on Earth. Technically my Uncle helped with the moon stuff or something. He almost died during the M-Pox stuff fighting to stop it, but that’s how my parents met so we always tried to be positive about it. And my powers are good. I like being able to talk with bugs and have them do stuff for me. I also can use my parkour skills really well. Like I got a huge boost in doing it after I went through terrigenesis.”

Danni's eyes widen at thought of a bug removal business. “OMG, t'at's such a great idea I love it! Et'ical bug removal services. Would ya keep all t'e bugs or would ya just like, relocate t'em ‘cause t'en I feel like you'd just ‘ave keep showin’ up but I guess t'at could be a "good" way ta keepin’ doin’ you're t'in’. Feels kinda villiany ya know, so def keep t'em. Or put t'em in t'e woods. Bugs like t'e woods so t'ey can snuggle up and make little bug ‘omes.” He swung by the meat section, grabbing chicken, some beef, and a chunk of pork belly. He peered into the basket and clicked his tongue disapprovingly before heading back to produce. “I didn't know spiders aren't bugs. T'ey look like bugs and t'ey actually like bugs. T'at's kinds wierd.”

“T'ey're my siblin's! I mean, obvi we're like ‘dopted and all t'at, but ya know! Dee's been wit’ me since I could t'ink and Rillie joined up a few years later and bamp, power siblin's! Alt'ough, ya did see t'em! Dee was t'e g'osty boy i’ t'e fights! Jumped inta Cassie and t'en made t'e big glowy t'in’ wit’ Billy. Which I ‘ad ta ‘ave a long convo after t'at. T'ere was a lotta flirtin’ before t'at when t'ey poofed away and I needed like, a gallon o’ brain bleach ta get t'at outta my head. Wild stuff, tbh. Need some onions… Should I get…” Danni grabbed a few, peering at them intently. “And t'en Rillie was t'e water girl, who ‘ose down people and made t'e bubbles ta keep everyone up and rockin’. She's was datin’ Joutunn and Amenesia, Leah and Beanie, and seems like ta be gettin’ a little messy wit’ t'em. Idk exactly what's ‘appenin’ but t'ats a poly t'at needs a little less action and a little more yappin’, ya know? And t'en Andy's gettin’ in wit’ t'e YA polys and Gideon. Everyone's gettin’ inta sitches wit’ each other, it's kinda wild. What do ya t'ink, t'is onion or t'is onion?” Danni offered Ben the two he was considering.

”This onion.” Ben pointed to one of them on instinct. It was the one he recognized more.

”Oh yeah I remember them both from the Contest. Your team was really good. I didn’t think you’d beat the Hex Girls. That last fight against YA though was wild. No one expected any of that to happen. Andy was the girl who broke America’s leg right? They are dating now? That’s a choice I suppose.” He wasn’t sure how to respond to Danni’s obvious aversion to people dating each other.

”Are you just against relationships in general, or the ones your siblings are in?” Ben decided to ask.

Danni stared a little longer at the onion Ben hadn't picked before putting it back and bagging up the other. “Oh god, I know. T'e ‘ex girls were… a lot. And after dealin’ wit’ t'e whole glowy t'reesome t'in'y, I don't really know ‘ow t'ey ‘andle magic all t'e time ‘cause I touched it for like ‘alf a second and it made me feel inside out, for real. I wanted ta nap for as long as I could. And t'at was apparently like five minutes ‘cause t'en t'e show down ‘appened and we beat the YA! And ‘onestly, t'e others were complainin’, but we ‘ad five hours of interviews and photos and all t'is other stuff and I was livin’ for it. What can I say, I like attention and I look good in the spotlight so-” Danni laughed before turning Ben's question over in his head.

“I mean, I'm not??? I mean yeah, I t'ink t'at just ‘cause you get in a relationship you shouldn't abandon your friends and stuff. Dee's boi has a list of insecurities taller t'an me and Dee flirtin’ wit’ Billy, who is also taken, is not great. Percy wouldn't stab t'e shit outta someone. He's gotta real nasty axe and I like ‘aving Dee ‘round, even if ‘e did kinda throw me aside for a bit ta ya know, do t'e ‘anky panky wit’ ‘is boyfriend. T'ough, Spicy and me are bestie now so it's all chill!” Danni pushed the cart with one hand as he talked, gesticulating wildly. “And t'en Rillie ‘ooked up wit’ my ot'er friend Beanie, who t'en also got wit’ Leah t'e giant on our team, and t'ey were in a poly for a bit and bot’ of t'em again didn't ‘ave time for me anymore ‘cause t'ey were too busy canmoolin’ or whatever it is and t'en Rillie tried ta take an early left, ‘ad a grippy sock vaca, and dumped t'en and t'in's got reaaaaaaaal awkward ‘cause like, wanna be supportive of Rillie and t'eir stuff but like, Beanie is a great friend too so like t'en I was caught in t'e middle and it was a mess. And t'en Rillie made out with Beanie in the stands after Beanie punched Rillie? Idk. Sometimes I just t'ink ta myself, ya t'ose are t'e people I choose and roll wit’ it. And I've dated. T'is girl Momica when I was a freshmen, could see in t'e dark and like thermal images and stuff and really liked photography like me and was like, real energetic and bubbly and fun, but we kinda got into it a few months in an decided ta split. We still hanging out and talk about shoots tho! She's usin’ ‘er t'ermal vision ta do some wicked landscape night shots.” Danni paused at the coolers in produce, picking up heads of lettuce.

“And t'en in sophomore year, I joined ‘ome econ club ‘cause I was a little overwhelmed wit’ just class and trainin’ and I dated Javier for a few months. Guy spoke French too, so we could ‘ave whole conversations wit'out anyone else listenin’ or buttin’ in. Laid back, a little messy tbh, but real good control over ‘is power. Used electrostuff ta power his own stuff, charge ‘is phone, power ‘is scooter, so one and so fort’. When I was ‘avin’ some trouble perfectin’ my ‘otShot actually, ‘e's t'e one who suggested I try usin’ my powers ta cook instead, ‘old t'e ‘eat of t'e fire and all t'at. Still, fizzled out a bit of t'e way in l. Still friends t'ough. Can't really avoid ‘im at club, so we still chat, just we don't ‘an’ out.” Danni shrugged as he picked up lettuce, a few bags of spinach, leaks, and green onion. “So like, don't get me wron’. I like datin’. Its cute, its fun, its nice ta ‘ave someone, yadda yadda yadda. Kissin’ is fun too, ya know? But why am I gettin’ cut out ‘cause someone else wants ta go roll in t'e ‘aye, ya know?” Danni sniffled as he felt the feelings from the beginning of the year come back and he stopped, waving his hands to dry hia eyes.

“But t'in's were talked out, we're good, I still get involved, and t'at's what matters!” Danni looped Ben into a one armed hug. “‘as anyone every told you you're a great listener ‘cause you're doin’ a great job so far! Ten outta ten, would recommend Bennie Boy. Sooooooo, I spilled my guts ta you, now ya gotta spill t'em back. Any special friends you're leavin’ back ‘ome ‘cross t'e pond?” Danni teased, pinching Ben's cheek.

Ben did not know why he was relieved. He pushed that thought aside. ”No, not like that anyway.” He rubbed his cheek where Danni had pinched it. ”I have my mates. There were like six of us, we all lived in a flat complex together. All of us are inhuman too, so we all knew eventually we’d go off to Braddock. We just had to get permission to go through the mists. The change is dangerous. It can kill so officially it is only done in controlled situations.”

”I get where you’re coming from though. One of my mates, Ricky, he got a girl friend and we barely saw him for months after that. They broke up though and Ricky came back to skate with us. We told him if he got another girl friend he wasn’t allowed to do that again. He had to skate with us. We wouldn’t let him back if he left us for a girl again. Two of the guys dated each other for a while, and then had a big fight and both almost stopped hanging out with us. For a while they’d switch days who was with the group. We got annoyed with that and told them to get over themselves. They started dating again after a month. At first they tried to hide that from the rest of us but they were really bad at it. We told them that if they wanted to date that was fine, they just couldn’t break up the group. No one wants to be the person that breaks up the group.” Ben looked at the ground and scuffed his foot at the flooring. ”Guess that ended up being me. I barely got to say goodbye. Cause my grandparents took me in at first and I was living with them and they have a house. Not even in London or anything so I wasn’t anywhere near my mates. I couldn’t even visit them; it'd take an hour to get there. Then my Uncle came and they all had a big conversation about me and what to do with me. Gran said she was happy to keep me there, but she wasn’t sure how to deal with all the super power stuff. She had grown up before too many people were out and definitely was afraid after Cardiff got destroyed. Not that she lived there. But she figured if one giant purple guy was willing to destroy Cardiff she had no idea how to help or protect anyone. She said she was too old to deal with it all. So my Uncle who has been active in super power stuff for years said he’d take me, but he needed to live in the US for work.” Ben shrugged. He realized he had said a lot more than he had planned to. It had just sort of all come out once he started.

”You’re a good listener too.” He admitted quietly. He missed his friends and his flat and what he thought his life was going to be. Now he felt adrift.

Danni came to a full stop as Ben spoke and stared. “Omg, t'ats so sad!” Danni wailed, throwing himself at Ben and wrapping him up tight. “I know its not t'e same, but ya can ‘an’ out wit’ our group! All t'e people in Excelsior are real nice. Idk if anyone skates so we can't ‘elp ya wut’ t'at, but we can show ya new stuff! I can't image ‘ow awful it would be if I couldn't see Dee and Rillie and Beanie and Leah and Spicy and Vicky and Andy and everyone! I mean, Pa can just ‘port us around but in t'e event ‘e couldn't, t'at be terrible! Omg, what's your favorite food? I'll make it for you. You ‘ave ta be so ‘omesick! It's okay, we gotchu now. You're gunna love ‘an'in’ out wit’ us if it kills me!”

Ben hugged Danni back. He was a little hesitant about it. His friends weren’t the touchy feely type much, but it was nice. ”Thanks. Uh, I suppose my favorite would be bangers and mash. Are you sure your friends would be okay with it?

“Yeah, obvi! T'ey'll love ya, it'll be great!” Danni sniffled, straightening back up and plucking out a few tissues from his pocket. He offered a watery laugh. “I'mma bit of a crier, sorry. But bangers and mash are your favorite? Let's see what's goin’ onot'ere.” Danni wiped his nose and tossed the tissues in the trash, his phone in his hand at light speed and immediately reaching how to make Ben's dish.

“Okay, okay, sausage, gravy, mashed potatoes… Yeah, t'is looks easy enough. Okay, cool yeah, I can totes just come over and make t'is no problem. You got plans for dinner already? My cookin’ is probs better so like, you should just cancel. Unless its a real nice restaurant and that'll I'll understand I guess. I need stock for t'e t'in’ tomorrow anyways and t'en I need ta get more garlic and onion for t'is and t'en I need ta add sausage to the cart and let's see what else do we need…” Danni started heading back to the onions as he scrolled through the recipe.

”I think my uncle is making dinner. He is really getting into the single dad thing with me.” Ben rubs the back of his head. ”I can talk to him though and see if there is a day he is alright with that. He’ll probably be happy I made a friend. He’s been going on about how I need to make new friends. He said it is a skill. I don’t think I have that skill, but you do.”

“Oh. Okay, we'll reschehule, I guess.” Danni pouted. He still.kept the ingredients so at least he could do a test on Bangers and Mash. He'd never tried to make it before so it would be a fun experiment. “Let me know if t'ere's anyt'in’ different ya like ‘bout it from like a normal recipe so I can add it in. Keep me updated on when ya wanna do it; wanna put your number in my phone?” Danni offered his phone for Ben to take.

“Eh, I guess it's a skill. Just gotta wanna make friends and t'en you will, super easy! And now t'at you got me, you're gunna get a whole lot more so your Uncle is gunna be cryin’ wit’ joy!” Danni laughed, circling once more to get potatoes. “And you're an easy guy ta talk to! Don't know why ya don't make many friends. Skate parks always seemed like one of t'ose place you make lots of friends like, automatically. T'at's ‘ow t’ey always show t'em in TV and movies. You don't just get inta a skatebattle and t'en t'e bonds of brot'er'ood and friendship just ‘appen?”

Ben took Danni’s phone and put in his contact information. ”I’ll also give you my snikt!.” Ben said, adding that to the contact page. ”I post mostly vids of skateboarding or parkour, and otherwise it is pictures of cool bugs I find.” He hands Danni his phone back.

”Yeah, I was sort of hoping to find some people that were into skating too when I went later. But my friends were the best cause we were all inhumans too. It was perfect.” He shrugs. ”I’m sure I’ll meet some people still. But I promise I’ll hang out with you even if I make other friends.” Danni had expressed how upset he was about being left out of his friendships and Ben didn’t want to start a new friendship by hurting him.

“Aw, see a little sweetheart right ‘ere.” Danni giggled, pinching his other cheek. Danni immediately took his phone back and started scrolling t'rough Ben's Snikt!. He saw exactly what Ben suggested, skating tricks and parkour. “Dan’, t'is is super cool! You're gunna do great in phys practice and combat sims. T'at parkour- omg, ‘ow did ya not die t'ere, t'at's crazy! Damn, you really know you're stuff, ‘u’? So cool! You should check out mine too! It's not as cool as flippin’ off stuff and ‘oppin’ rails, but my cookin’ is pretty good and I got flyin’ stuff on t'ere!” Danni sent a follow request to Ben on the site and pocketed his phone.

“Okay, well plans on ‘old for now so what ot'er random stuff should I get for t'is video? Got a decent chunk o’ t'e basics, but I kinda wanna get some real funny stuff for Leah ta see if I can shock t'em. What ya t'ink I should add? It's a spice challenge once we vit’ make our dishes, btw. I'll give your account a shout out if ya want one too!”

Ben opened his snikt! and accepted Danni’s follow, he followed back and then blinked at the follower number on Danni’s account. Ben had only a little over two-hundred. All of his followers were friends and other skaters or parkour people he had met or were following people he knew. The number of people who followed Danni was wild.

”I don’t know spicy foods very well to be honest. I don’t really eat it. So I'm not sure what to suggest there. Sorry. And um...you can I suppose. I don’t want you to feel like you have to or anything.”

“It's lit no big deal. Takes less t'an two seconds! So, we need some wierd and random stuff… Not t'at its for t'e actual dish, but as like… an option? Like, ha ‘here's whatcha can use in your dish and see if t'ey can get creative wit’ it, ya know? I wonder if t'ey ‘ave Duran. I ‘aven't used it ‘cause it stinks but its super vers t'e internet says, ya know? Like, some people make ice cream outta it and t'at throws me for a loop. Ooooo, t'at reminds me ta get ginger and ‘eavy cream. Idk if she'll wanna make an Indian dish and t'ey always want a really good cream sauce in t'em.” Danni muttered to himself before setting off. “Oooh, you know what. I def wanna get tamarind and anchovies now t'at I t'ink about it.”

“Hm… bugs. You ‘ave any funny prank stories? Dee loves possessin’ objects and stuff to spooky people. T'ough its also real useful when he slides inta me and I just get ta enjoy t'e ride when I'm a little overwhelmed.”

Ben’s jaw dropped at the phrasing that Danni used. He coughed and recovered. ”Uh, not really. I only started being able to control bugs a few months ago, and it was... after I moved. Well just before I moved in with my grandparents for a bit. So I didn’t really get to mess with my friends with it.”

“You need some water? I can get ya some!” Danni offered when he heard Ben cough, as he inspected the prickly Duran fruit. “What a missed opportunity. You'll ‘ave ta prank some people when you get ta t'e Institute! There are some many little ‘idin’ places; t'ough, don't send them after me. I am a reflexive fire starter and I don't wanna burn your bug friends. Oh…” Danni paused.

“Do you t'ink bugs are afraid of dragons? I don't t'ink I've ever seen Amélie eat a bug, but I don't really know. Can you ‘ear a bug die if it guts munched up? Should I carry around ear plugs for you?”

”Uh, no I’m fine. I don’t need any water. Thanks though. You just... uh... that was some odd phrasing is all. And noted don’t prank you with bugs.” Ben paused, ”Wait dragon?” The rest of the questions that Danni had asked got lost behind the DRAGON.

“Oh, yeah! Amelié! She's on all my socials! Isn't she adorable? T'e best baby in t'e world.” Danni, never on to miss an opportunity to gush about her, suddenly had his phone out and was pulling up a folder with almost 3,000 pictures in it. “Okay, okay, okay. I'll show you my favorites. T'is is ‘er first time seein’ snow. She really liked t'e idea of snow and t'eeeeen she touched it and I ‘ave never seen a dragon move t'at fast or ‘ave claws t'at cold. She was under my sweater in a ‘eartbeat. And t'is one is us, snuggled up in bed. She likes ta sleep on my chest, under the blankets, and even t'en sometimes she still grumbles if I don't give ‘er a little fire for a bit, just ta make it extra cozy. Man, t'e the first week she slept in my bed t'ough, she tore clothes left and right. I stopped wearin’ a sleep shirt ta bed for a bit ‘cause Pa wasn't always around ta fix ‘em.”

Danni swapped to another one and a giggled. “‘er first time chasin’ a butterfly. Funniest t'in’ ever. Barely ‘atched and she was stumblin’ all t'rough t'e fields tryin’ ta get t'is t'in’. Was right after I ‘ad a good convo wit’ Andy ‘bout judgin’ ‘er clothes since she's somwt'in’ outta time. She was friends wit’ t'e rents and now she's ‘ere, lookin’ still like a kid and is still a kid. I dunno, t'e timey stuff is confusin’ and it make my ‘ead ‘urt so I don't t'ink ‘bout it!”

Ben was a bit confused, but it seemed like Danni was so he just listened. He’d ask the others for clarification later. For now he enjoyed the pictures of Amelié. She was in fact an adorable dragon.

”Okay, that is wicked cool. How did you get a pet dragon?” Ben accepted the possibility of dragons existing. Why not? Aliens did. Who knew what other things that were supposed to be stories weren’t. He sure didn’t. So he went with the flow.

“Oh, okay, okay, so we ‘ad t'is Professor named Aggie, like Aggie ‘arkness, and she was transferrin’ ta Strange Academy ‘cause magic prof teachin’ at t'e magic school makes a lot sense, riiight? So Aggie was all like ”You're all so cool and t'e best students in t'e world and Imma reaaaaally miss ya, so I'mma give you some stuff. So she sent up a tent and did a whole readin’ for you and she said I was gunna be a knight who charged ahead wit'out t'inkin’ and… ‘u’, yeah t'at sticks tbh. Anyways, t'en she went on ‘bout omega mutant fire burn always and forever and its super important you get a hold of it and I was like duh, t'at's why I am school right? And t'en she said t'at t'ere was someone equal but opposite and t'ey could ‘elp me and idk what t'at meant so I kept talkin’ and t'en Aggie was like You're t'e best so ‘ave a dragon egg.” Danni explained, struggling to remember everything in order. Honestly, he was proud of how much he did remember! “And t'en I ‘ad t'e egg for a ‘ot minute. I kept it nice and warm and safe and I tried ta do research, but t'e Academy ‘ad like (1) one raggity old book t'at just said go ta a different dimension ta learn more and I was like, I ain't got time for t'at. Like, who ‘as time for a casual cross dimensional jaunt just ta read books? I was busy trainin’ for t'e contest! But t'e I got real upsetti at Dee ‘cause he casually dropped on me and Rillie t'at ‘im and Percy rolled in t'e ‘ay and I maaaaaaay ‘ave set t'e dorm and myself on fire, but I ‘ad t'e egg in my bag and ‘cause it got so ‘ot, Amelié decided ta come out and boom, dragon daddy!”

”That is wicked cool.” Ben was a bit jealous. He wasn’t sure if he even got a pet dragon what he would do with it. His uncle would likely not let him keep it. Not that Matt was against pets, but a pet dragon seemed like a lot. ”How do you care for it?”

“Oh! Really easy tbh ya just gotta watch out for t'e teet’ and t'e claws and t'e real ‘ot but not actual fire breat’! So, Amélie likes t'e real savory stuff. Like, just straight, heh, meat ya know? But she likes it wit’ a little charcoal so I'll blast it a little bit too. T'en, we ‘ave ta give ‘er a bat’ like every few days ‘cause she likes ta roll in gross stuff like dirt and mud and roadkill but she doesn't sweat, she just-” Danni let out a little puff of fire from his mouth and blew it away. “Ya know? Super cool, alt'ough she ‘ated t'e cold so you always gotta ‘ave somet'in’ warm for ‘er. T'ankfully, can't get much ‘otter t'an me so she normally just cuddles up wit’ me and if it gets too cold, I just breathe a little fire over ‘er! T'e playtime is a big one. She's got soooo much energy, it's great!!! And she's tryin’ ta get ‘er little wings ta work, bless ‘er ‘eart, so she's constantly hoppin’ off stuff ta get ‘er t'at bit o’ air. Def my favorite wittle menace! Ah! I guess, t'e answer you are lookin’ for young palawan is t'at you take care of a dragon a lot like a vicious, lovin’ puppy! Feed t'em, play wit’ t'em, keep t'em from teet'in’ on t'e furniture, ya know t'e whole nine yards! You wanna meet ‘er when we ‘ang out on campus? She stays wit’ me!”

”I’d love to. Sounds like she’d be way too much for me to handle. I can’t use fire magic at all. That’s alright, I’ve got basically all the insects in the world as my friends.” Ben smiled. He was impressed at Danni being able to handle such a creature. Ben was actually starting to look forward to the new school. He would miss his friends no matter what, but at least now he had something to look forward to.

Danni picked up a duran fruit and turned it back and forth, but snapped back up to look at Ben. “‘ey, ‘ey, ‘ey, Mister. You gotta ‘ave some confidence in yourself; ot'erwise, you're just settin’ yourself up ta fail off t'e bat! I believe in ya. If you can ‘andle t'e bugs t'en ya can ‘andle a dragon! ‘owever, I would stay far, far away from magic. Lemme tell ya, waaaaaay too much. T'at was wild.” Danni advised Ben on before returning to staring at the Duran fruit. “‘ow do you tell if one of t'ese are good? I ‘ave never tried ta deal wit’ one, ya know. Like, its so spikey and fleshy. Idk if t'at means its good or bad. I could always just risk t'e biscuit. But I kinda want my biscuit wit’ jam, not duran. Eh, lets not stress I guess! No stressy wit’ my spagetti!” Danni plopped it into his cart before continuing on.

“Okay, so you're goin’ ta be a ‘ero school so why ya wanna be a ‘ero, my Benny boi?”

Ben stared at the Durian. He knew what the fruit was. He had never seen one in person. But he could smell why it was notorious. Not even cut, it smelled intense. He frowned when Danni asked him why he wanted to be a hero. Ben didn’t really have a straight forward answer. Braddock was just always where he was going to go. Once he and the others went through the mists they’d all go to Braddock together. Now he was alone here in California.

He thought about it. Ben had always looked up to his uncle. He remembered holidays hearing stories about things Matt had done. But it was what his parents had done that had been more important. Their work on the cure for M-Pox had saved lives. It had taken a lot of work and they weren’t the only ones who had worked on it.

”My parents were scientists.” He said quietly. ”Not heroes. Not like my uncle. I’m never going to be the type of scientist they were. I’m never going to be the type of hero my uncle is. If anything I’ll just work with bugs. It was all I was really interested in doing even before I got powers. I figured no matter what my powers I’d study insects still. I got kind of lucky, I guess, that my powers matched that part of me. But my mom and dad, they were pathologists. They didn’t fight anyone. Dad was human. He was never a super hero, not at all. Not like you’d imagine a super hero to be like. He worked in a lab. But he saved lives. Sure he was just one of hundreds working on cures for all sorts of things. He helped though. I just want to help. I don’t care about being recognized or anything. I just want to know that the things I do make the world a little bit better.”

“Pat'oltists? What are t'ose? Seems fancy. Did t'ey travel a lot? Did t'ey leave you at ‘ome a lot? Oh, but t'ey made cures! T'at's so cool t'ough ‘cause like sure I could totes like, burn up a tree t'at fell over on t'e road, but someone is sick? I can't really do anyt'in’ ‘bout it. Not like I can go inta someone and just burn out t'e sickness. T'en I'd burn t'e person and t'at would not be great.” Danni threw his arm around Ben's shoulders again and bonked his head against his. “Sorry your ‘rents are gone t'ough. I can't imagine losin’ mine, t'ough technically I'm adopted so I guess I already did, but I was less t'at a year so like idr t'em at all and I'm ‘appy wit’ Pops and Papa and Pa and Appa so like I'm all chill wit’ t'at ya know? But if you're ever real sad, I'm your friend now so give me a ring or just come on over and I'm happy ta make ya laugh or cry wit’ ya. I'm real good at cryin’. And t'en once ya meet everyone else, it'll be just like t'at too! We'll all be t'ere ta ‘elp!”

Ben leaned into the hug. He hadn’t really talked about his parents. Not since they died. His uncle had tried to get him to talk. But it was weird because Matt missed his sister, it wasn’t the same as losing your parents. Ben was a little surprised to learn that Danni was also adopted. Interesting, but how different was it when you had been your whole life.

”Guess we have that in common then. Both being adopted. I will, call, if I’m sad.” Ben promised. Maybe Matt would get off his case about making friends now for sure.

The PA system crackled to life. “THIS IS A CODE ADAM. ATTENTION ALL STAFF THIS IS A CODE ADAM. THE CHILD IS A 14 YEAR OLD MALE, HE IS 5’4”, HIS NAME IS BEN MOSS. THIS IS NOT A DRILL, THIS IS A CODE ADAM.”

Ben face palmed. ”Bloody hell he didn’t even text me. Just went straight for, obviously he has been kidnapped. I gotta go find him. I’ll text you later.”

“Do you want me ta come? Explain t'at I accidently snatched ya up?” Danni offered.

Ben paused mid-step, ”Actually, he might go for that. Come on. I’ll introduce you.”

Avengers Academy: X of Swords ⚔️

---

---

---

Location: Two Sisters
Skills: Enhanced Reflexes (Passive)

---

---

School would be going on break soon. Andy had plans to go to Magneto’s...her home. She had plans to go home. She’d hitch a ‘ride’ with Dorian and Danni. It was very convenient that they lived next door to her. Andy was determined to spend some time with them over the break. She had a lot of plans.

Andy had made an appointment with Dr. Whitehall as soon as she could. There was a lot she wanted to talk about. It was nice that the feeling of ‘you can’t talk about this’ was completely gone. Meeting Max, the others and more importantly Magneto had made it feel less like she had to hide who she was. When Andy thought about it she had been hiding who she really was basically her whole life.

Now that Selene was in Max’s hands and not Andy’s responsibility anymore she felt it was safer to talk about. Divulging that your mother was personally responsible for genocide was not something she had wanted to get into before learning that Max, James, and Casper had brought back almost everyone that had been lost. That was a relief. It also was now completely public knowledge that she had been on Genosha and fought for it. She had revealed that during the Contest.

Andy knocked on Dr. Whitehall’s door and waited for permission to enter. She was a couple of minutes early for their meeting so she didn’t expect to be let in immediately. It was possible Dr. Whitehall was with another student. Andy hoped not. It could be awkward if she was.

Dr. Whitehall had watched the contest. She promised she would and she was always one to keep her promises. She didn’t make them lightly as that could break the bond held between therapist and client. So she watched Excelsior wipe the floor with the Hex Girls and watched, in mild concern and horror, during the Young Avengers fight with the Entity. She could only imagine how some of them were feeling. She didn’t expect to hear from any of them, it was always their choice and she made it clear the first time, while mandatory, did not mean they had to continue.

So when she received word from Andy about wanting a session, she felt a touch of pride, especially in her. Admitting you need help, wanting to talk about tough subjects, it was brave. She was preparing for said session when she heard the knock. Andy was early. ”Come in!” Dr. Whitehall stood up in preparation for Andy, allowing the girl to sit where she wanted. The office was different than last time. This time it was what Dr. Whitehall’s office normally looked like. Warm colors spread throughout, two comfortable armchairs and a sofa, a small coffee table with some magazines, fidget spinners, coloring supplies, and books. A large bookcase that held heavy subjects in psychology, psychiatry, and sociology as well as some fiction books, some self-help novels, and a few children’s books about gender identity, bullying, and other various subjects.

”Nice to see you again Andy. Please, take a seat anywhere.”

”Hi Dr. Whitehall.” Andy greeted and sat down in one of the armchairs. She had looked over the room as she sat, picking up one of the quieter fidget toys. She liked having the things to play with but didn’t like the noise some of them made.

”It is crazy a lot has happened since the last time I talked to you. No joke. I need to do some explaining before I can even get into what I finally feel like I can talk about.” Andy was smiling. Maybe it was the joy of winning the contest or something else, but she looked relieved. Like a huge weight had been taken off of her shoulders. She still had the nervous energy about her, and worry and fear were bubbling in the back of her mind, but it wasn’t like before. Before it seemed like she was waiting for a grenade to go off.

Dr. Whitehall sat in the other armchair, one leg over the other. ”Yes, a lot has happened. Congratulations on your win. You all should be very proud of yourselves. You seem to be in great spirits which is wonderful to see. So, please, the floor is yours.”

”Thank you! I am very proud, of everyone on the team. Alright, first some context. So, as I mentioned the first time I came that I had time traveled here from 2021. That was from just after the fall of Genosha. My mother is Selene. She’s the one who tried to basically destroy the world. We stopped her. Then I came here with Zari. Well when we left we didn’t say anything to anyone. We just had to go. Right then or never. So I joined her. Probably not the best choice, but I am happy I came. I don’t know what would have happened if I hadn’t come and I don’t really want to think about it. Not important. But I had my mom trapped in some sort of magical rubix cube thing. But she changed into this doll. She could sort of interact with the world. I was always afraid she’d get out somehow. Anyway, at first I was hiding all of that. I wasn’t telling anyone. But after I talked with you I did tell Dorian. His parents are friends of mine from Genosha, and before. So we go to the contest right, but we’re staying at Dorian and Danni’s place in New Orleans. So both of their parents, are old friends of mine, and it is the first time I’ve seen them since the fall of Genosha. Turns out they thought I was dead. No one had really believed that Zari was from the future. Well Max, he’s a big shot wizard guy now, was able to trap my mom so I don’t have to worry about her right now. Oh, she’ll definitely come back and be an issue in the future, but right now, I am not worried some powerful wizard is going to show up and sacrifice people to her to free her. Or something equally unhinged.” Andy paused and took a few deep breaths. During her little speech she had been playing with the fidget or kicking her feet.

Dr. Whitehall listened carefully. This was clearly important for Andy to unload and, from the sounds of it, a lot of pressure and stress had been on her shoulders for a while. Once it appeared she settled, Dr. Whitehall spoke up. ”That is a lot to process for myself so I can only imagine how you are feeling about it. I know we talked a bit about you time traveling and coming here with Zari, but it is nice to get further context. I am happy to hear some pressure has been taken off of you. Maybe you can share a little insight for me. How does it feel to have that pressure from your mother taken off your shoulders, albeit for some time?”

”It is like I was Atlas and suddenly that weight is all gone. I was so afraid. All the time. I couldn’t do or think about anything but the possibility of her getting free. When the thing with Arcade happened. We died. I mean that. We all died. I only came back because Ardere touched me. I was an energy vampire and I ate her soul to save my life. I don’t feel bad for it. Not really. But good news! Turns out that was a curse mom put on me and Max took me to this voodoo guy in New Orleans and he removed the curse. I am no longer an energy vampire. I cannot eat souls anymore. I was so afraid of becoming like mom because of that. That’d I’d be willing to do that to people, not just accidentally, or anything, but want to do that. Because I came back though, Zari and I were able to go back in time and save everyone. So I don’t regret it, not really. I’m sorry she died, but I didn’t have control over that. And I saved everyone else. The point though is if I hadn’t come back. If I had died. Who would have protected Selene? I don’t mean she needs protection. The world needs protection from her. We have to keep her contained. But this was before Max and them knew I was alive. They wouldn’t have known. It was stupid of me to leave without saying anything, but I didn’t have a lot of a choice. I should have reached out as soon as I was here though. I feel like yeah I’m still scared that Selene can come back at any moment. But with MU we stopped her once we can do it again. Alone...I can’t. Just like the contest. I couldn’t have won that fight if I had been the only one to stay. Without April and Dorian we wouldn’t have won. I can’t do things alone. I was trying to do that.” Andy admitted. She hoped that answered the question. She hadn’t even finished telling Dr. Whitehall everything yet. She wanted to tell her how she had reunited with Magneto, but she was already bouncing around a lot in her explanation.

”Admitting we need help can be a heavy burden, especially when you have had to shoulder a lot of things by yourself. And it is never a bad thing to admit it later in life. I am happy to hear you have such strong supports behind you. It sounds like you’ve processed a lot of this already, but having this space to have it settle is important. Please, continue. I get the sense there’s more you want to say, but feel free to take a moment if you need it. I can also get some tea or coffee if you want.”

Andy nodded, ”There is more. So I reunited with Danni and Dorian’s parents, which was a big thing. I missed them a lot. But it turns out that their neighbor is my adoptive father.”

“While on Genosha, before I knew that Selene was mother, Magento adopted me. I was in a bad place at the time and just going with the flow. The Drummonds had...” Andy paused and took a deep breath. ”Actually let me start there. My last Christmas was 2020, just before M-Pox. I was living with the Drummonds. They had taken me in two years prior and they were planning on legally adopting me. It was a bit of a battle because legally...I was a runaway. They were really struggling to get it to work, but that Christmas they finally had the paperwork approved. We were going to finalize it.” Andy’s hands were shaking.

”Some Purifiers broke into their Gym. They burned the gym down. With the Drummonds inside. I got out. I fought them and ran. After that I met up with the MU. Everything just was in so much chaos. I didn’t have any breathing room. I was just going from one insane thing to another. But here, with the MU, I was somewhere safe. Somewhere that wanted to protect me. I had seen Magneto fight for his daughter, Polaris. He had tore the building we were in down around us to get to her. No one had done that for me. Not ever. The Drummonds probably would have.” She paused again looking up at the ceiling.

”I haven’t told anyone, not a single person. Not even Zari. About what happened to the Drummonds. But there I was on Genosha. Finally feeling a little bit of security and Magneto offered to take me in. Offered to be my family. He swore to protect me.” Her eyes watered and tears fell.

”This was before anything had even happened on Genosha. Before we ever had to defend it. Before I knew who I was. He didn’t care. He saw some scared kids and took them in. Later, during the fight with Selene.” She smiled at the memory. ”He yelled at her to unhand his child. He defended me. He protected me. I felt so bad for leaving and not saying anything. I was so afraid I’d find out that he had died. He was old back then. But he is alive. He is healthy. He lives next door to Dorian and Danni. I saw him. We talked. I’ll be going home to him.” She started crying again. This time instead of the intense grief that she had over the Drummonds it was relief and happiness that she cried with.

Dr. Whitehall reached over to move a tissue box closer to Andy, if she needed it. Dr. Whitehall knew of Magneto, knew the polarizing views on him and mutant-kind. Despite the progress made, there was still hatred. ”I am so sorry to hear what happened to your family, Andy. Given how young you were and going through that, no child should ever, but the world is unkind, especially to mutants and the like. But you powered through it and found a home. And found family. To have someone willing to stand not just by you, but for you, can be so rewarding, especially after so many hardships. And in all that time you were never able to just be a kid. So I hope with your mother being safely squared away for the time being and you being reconnected with your adoptive father you can make time to enjoy yourself and let yourself breathe. You deserve that.”

Andy took some of the offered tissues and dabbed at her eyes, trying not to mess up her make up. She nodded at what Dr. Whitehall was saying. She hadn’t been able to feel normal since she was eight when she found out she was a mutant. She had lived in fear for so long. Andy wasn’t even certain she knew what it meant to be a kid.

”I remember when he showed up for Polaris I was jealous. I wanted that. I wanted someone who cared that much about me. The Drummonds tried. They really did. And in a world where they survived and I never left Rochester I would have been happy. God it would have been a good life. A quiet life. I’m sure there is some universe where it happened. I am okay not being in that universe though. Because I’ve worked for this one.” She then bit her lip.

”There is one more thing I think I should tell you. I never talked to Zari about anything. She left before I could. I shouldn’t be surprised. She left Genosha without saying goodbye. So I figure she sort of broke up with me. Now...well I’m trying out some things. I won’t say anything is serious, but it is nice to try things.”

”Sometimes we have people in our life for brief periods and that doesn’t make it any less valuable. And being open to trying new things is great. And it is within your power to define what that looks like with others. Boundaries are still important and communication is key, but I don’t have to tell you that, I’m sure.”

Andy smiled. She had had a bit of a roller coaster of emotions during this session, but she seemed settled now. Like telling someone everything had made it something she was past and done with. There were still bits of doubt, worry, fear, and guilt, but in general Andy was happy. Originally Andy had had a ‘kicked puppy’ look about her. Maybe it was finding her family and friends, maybe it was winning the contest, who knew what actually had made it happen, but she wore the confidence of the ring outside of it now. She was comfortable with who she was. Something she had never been before.

”Thank you Dr. Whitehall. I will keep that in mind. I don’t think I could have quite figured it all out without your help. I didn’t have anyone that I felt would listen to me. I do feel like I have those people now. Between the Kingston-Gray household and having my dad back in my life. I know that I have people who would stand by me through literally the end of the world. But I don’t know if I would have gotten this far without your help. I don’t think I would have told Dorian that his parents were my old friends. That was a delight.”

”I am glad I could be of help, but this was also very much your achievement too. Being able to ask for help and then use the help can be difficult and you made those choices. And now you get to enjoy your time with your friends and family. The door to healing never closes fully, either.”

Andy nodded. ”Yeah, but I figure I should still say thank you to the people who helped me get here.” She stood up. ”I’ll come back. I know I sort of just went over a lot of context today, but it was important. You had to know certain things to understand. I probably should have told you some of it the first time. But I wasn’t ready. I’ve also been talking with my dad. He’s helping a lot. I’m thankful I found my family again. We may have only been a family for a short time, but that is okay. Blood isn’t what makes family.” She smiled and left.

Château de La Lune

---

---

2:30 PM - Friday, July 18th, 2025 - Château de La Lune, France

---

@PatientBean@TheMaster99@KazAlkemi@Trainerblue192@kittyluna45@KTostada

---

---

La Lune Family

Elenore La Lune
Richard La Lune
Agatha La Lune
George La Lune
Beatrice La Lune
Lawrence La Lune
Nathan La Lune
Elizabeth La Lune
Gabrielle La Lune
Jeanne La Lune
Lena La Lune

---

Lunch was not ready. Anyone who wandered into the dining area would be informed by the staff that it would be ready at three. That the lunch would be light and informal, as dinner would be more formal. If anyone asked what was for lunch, they’d be informed that it was Salade Nicoise, Jambon-beurre, and some pastries for dessert. There would be tea, coffee, and juices available as well.

---

---

Ralph

---

Location: Château de La Lune
Skills: N/A

---

---

”A change of clothes and some food sounds great,” Ralph agreed. He was quiet for a moment as they dried themselves off. He took off his shoes, but carried them with him when they went upstairs.
”Lena seems like she’ll be easier to find. She’s always in that corner of the bar, right? She is very involved in her tech.” He wondered if Lawrence would be in there too. He didn’t know where Richard spent his time. They’d probably have to look for him.

”Do you mean tell him that we know Renee was his daughter?” Ralph was nervous about that idea. Were they sure he was? The paper said there was a match, but not with who. The text was separate. Who had sent that? There were a lot of questions.

Strange Academy: Journey into Mystery

---

---

Location: Primary Artificer Laboratory
Grimoire: Fae Magic
Skills:

---

”Of course my dearest,” Finley told Dysphoria. ”I always have time for you.”

Upon receiving the other blood samples, Finley set to work. They kept the samples of blood from each of the four of them in their separate jars. Finley removed from their pockets some leaves, sticks, and a bit of spiderweb. They broke apart each of the items so there were four piles. All four piles would be sympathetic to each other, having the same parent item. These items were added into the jars of blood, and whatever the hell Rohan called his body fluids.

The magic combined as did the fluids, Annika and Rohan’s blood took longer and was a bit harder, but in the end, Finely was able to manipulate the blood into become an anchor. They, as a group, would be able to use the sympathetic magic of the mixture like a compass.

”Here is my contribution.” Finley held up the glass container. The liquid did not look exactly like blood, but its original source was obvious. It was a deep red, like port, and watery.

---

---

---

Location: Room 12
Grimoire: Transform self
Skills:

---

”If you consider proper documentation hesitancy, no wonder everyone has gone mad looking at this, and left nothing to show for it. Did your coven, who were trying to map it, leave anything behind? Or are you destroying their documentation?” Connie asked, irritated. She gave Croan a scathing look and stood.

”You can keep it in your room,” Connie suggested to Jake. She smiled gently at him. Glad that he appreciated the gift. Connie did note that Nick had apparently given Jake a gift too. That concerned her. The Macleod twin’s ‘gifts’ often came with strings attached to them. They were much like Fin in that way.

Connie considered her options. Barty’s suggestion of a different look at things was interesting. Even if Croan automatically dismissed it. She did not particularly care what he thought. He had been giving this Mystery for how long and had still failed to crack it. Her other option was insanely dangerous.

Connie’s transformation magic may be exactly what was needed here. In theory, she could cast stone to flesh. But she didn’t trust the object. She didn’t trust that her magic wouldn’t just be eaten and she drained of it all. That fear was enough to convince her to hold off on that idea... for now.

So, self-transformation and becoming a bird it was. Connie shifted, one moment she was a human woman, the next a bird.

In the air, Connie flew over the statue, taking in the appearance of the markings. She was not entirely surprised to see that it looked the same; nothing stood out to her.

Avengers Academy: X of Swords ⚔️

---

---

---

Location: Two Sisters
Skills: Enhanced Reflexes (Passive)

---

---

Andy giggled as Gideon nibbled on her ear. Her cheeks felt warm, and her insides felt like they were on fire. She was not against a round two. When Gideon came back with the food, Andy dug in. She was very hungry. It had been a long few days. Today had been physically and emotionally exhausting too.

Though in the end she was still happy. Her anxiety had faded back and was not overwhelming. She wondered, as she ate and watched her friends dance, how much of her stress had been about her mom. How much of her brain was constantly thinking about how Selene could and would cause the end of the world if given half a chance. As she ate Andy decided she'd let Max keep Selene for now. She'd finish school and then take her back, but until then she needed to focus on herself. Focus on learning, focus on her relationships. Focus on not being overwhelmed by a weight of something beyond her comprehension.

When she was full, she asked Gideon, "Do you dance? I'm not any good at it, but willing to be dumb for a bit with you."

Camp Lava Lake

---

---

9:00 AM - Friday, June 13th 1980 - Lava Lake trail, BC, Canada

---

@KazAlkemi@Achronum@kittyluna45@Morose@Trainerblue192

---

---

---

Emily

---

Location: Camp Lava Lake Trail
Skills: Hiking

---

---

”Emily, or Em is fine,” Em responded to Demi. ”Sorry, I forgot your name, something with a D right? Food will be ready in a bit. He’s making a quiche. He’ll ring the bell.” She pointed to a large bell that was on one end of the porch, the side opposite the oak tree.

”I’m not afraid of a little dirt on my camping bag, Aster,” she yelled after him. She shrugged at Ezekiel’s recommendation and put her backpack down on the porch. She grabbed a notebook out of it.

”Alright, let’s go.” Emily started down the hill, her eyes searching for plants and paths.