The Luckiest Girl In The World

In unison the twins went, "Oooooooooh" and appluded like he'd done a trick.

Both kids were dickheads.

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Dante rolled his eyes at both of them.

And then kicked the plastic on the inside of the fridge just hard enough that the milk package went flying into the air.

He caught it in mid-air, turned it over, and poured it into a mug.

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Okay, this time, their ooohs were actually sincere.

In fairness, so was Kathy's.

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"And that's what you get for trying to sass your dad," Dante said, adding the cocoa mix and stirring. (The next pouring-into-mug was slightly less dramatic.)

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"Sassing your mom just gets you grounded," Kathy announced, flicking water onto the griddle to make sure it was hot enough for pancakes.

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Tristan leaned over to hug Kathy. "Aww, mom," he said sweetly, looking up at her with big, brown eyes. "We wouldn't. We love you."

And while he was distracting her, Imogen was stealing whole handfuls of strawberry slices from the bowl on the counter.

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Dante noticed, but he just winked at the girl and left it at that.

He put two half-full mugs of milk-and-cocoa in the microwave, punching a few numbers.

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Duh he noticed. Some of them were his cut for keeping quiet!

Two big, messy handfuls of strawberries later and Imogene was sneaking out of the room for a quiet place where she could divvy up the spoils. Tristan kept hugging Kathy until his twin was safely out of the room and then let go. "Kay, mom, love you, bye!" and he dashed out after her.

"Aww," Kathy said, a fond expression on her face. "They're so sweet."

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"More like buttering you up for something later," Dante said, making an amused noise. "You doing okay in here?"

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"Cynic," Kathy accused. "Maybe they just really like hugs."

Oh Kathy. You were such a soft touch it was almost painful.

"I'm...doing," she said, brushing a few tendrils of hair that had slipped from her braid onto her forehead. "Kids sometimes make things complicated, you know?"

That whole hookup conversation with Raven had just been weird.

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"Complicated how?" Dante asked, frowning at her.

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"If I never have to talk about whether I'm going to hook up with my shapeshifting bestie in front of a ten-year-old again, it'll be too soon," she grumbled.

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Dante blinked.

Then tilted his head as he thought about it.

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As soon as he knew what to make of it, he was free to share with her, because Kathy sure as hell didn't.

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"Hot," Dante announced.

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She eyed him, hefting the spatula she was using for the pancakes menacingly.

"The problem is, you're right," she said, letting the spatula go limp. "In a kind of jock way. At least in that body. And she could be literally whoever I wanted!"

Which was a disturbingly sexy thought.

"...But I'm not gonna hook up with her. I'm not on the market for hookups. She should know that. And now I might have just broke Aidan's heart because for a moment, he really thought he was the reason his moms got together."

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"Wait, did Raven actually say that out loud?" Dante said. "...Okay, eesh."

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"First she wanted to know why we'd never hooked up when she was a dude and I had to point out she was never a dude when she was still pining over me," Kathy said with an aggrieved sigh. "And then she was like, 'Well, are we gonna hook up now, I'm good either way' and I was like, 'Oh my god, not now,' and she was confused why this was a bad time, so finally I had to tell her that if things were different, yeah, I'd probably hook up with her as a guy, but that things weren't at all different."

Breathe, Kathy.

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Long pause. "Okay," he said, "Yeah, that's maybe not the kinda talk you wanna have in front of the kids."

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"That's what I said!" Kathy groused. "And I just--it's bad enough that the kids come here and see that their parents aren't the only possible configuration, but I just hate it when one kid sees that their family isn't even in the offing, here. That seems like a terrible thing to do to a kid."

She just wanted all the kids to feel happy and welcome and safe here. And she'd really dropped the ball on that last year, so she'd been doubly-determined for this one.

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"It might suck," Dante said. "'Course, they can also be like, 'cool, but that's not how it works out' and shrug it off."

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"Maybe, but I'd rather assume it'll hurt and be pleasantly surprised than figure they'll be fine and end up being careless," Kathy said.

To literally no one's surprise.

"It's hard being a little kid sometimes," she said. "And sometimes these kids come from hard lives. Mine and Ezra's kid was worried about the Coterie. Carys didn't realize it when she was explaining, but Anders and I lived as fugitives, trying to keep the Circle from taking her away from us. I just want the kids who show up to have a weekend where they don't have to be hurt or scared or sad. And if they come from happy, loving homes, then I don't wanna mess with their belief that everything is okay. The world's gonna do that fast enough."

Soft touch.

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Dante let out a soft laugh.

"Yeah, you keep Kathying," he said fondly.

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"It's the only way I know how to be," Kathy sighed.

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