Amaranthine

Under the guard of what was quickly becoming known as Dawn’s Arbor, the city had calmed down considerably. Repair and rescue efforts had found themselves with the aid of helpful vines and plant growth, and the city as a whole was now nearly as verdant as the untamed wilds around it. The difference was that the growth within the Tortoiseshell was directed, guided and molded to help the city's residents rather than reclaim the land for mother nature.

As such, there was currently little for the Guardians to do. Director Swan was locked in her office, supposedly conferring with the heads of other forces within the NAAC to start a counteroffensive against the Bookkeeper now that Des Moines was more or less secure.

So, without any emergencies to deal with, when Monday came around Cait finally bent to the exhortations of her parents to rejoin the bar trivia team at Lynn’s.

“They’re gonna be, like, totally cool that you show up with a girl on each arm, a tentacle monster, a nerd, a deer, and a dragon that’s also a conditional fourth, right?” Lira asked, starting to count off the oddities of their group on her fingers, as she leaned forward from the back seat. Cait grinned, nodding.

“Yep! Fuck, if anything they’ll be happy I’m dating, instead of just, you know, fuckin’,” she explained, squeezing Kennedy’s thigh as the girl rode beside her. “Been awhile since I actually brought anyone around to meet them, much less a couple of gorgeous superhumans.”

Kennedy rested her hand possessively on Cait’s, reaching her other back through the gap in the seat towards Lira, only to jump as the girl playfully bit at it.

“Hey!” she yelped, turning to scowl at the grinning redhead. “Fuck me for trying to do something cute, I guess!”

“Oh, babes, that won’t be the reason I fuck you,” Lira responded, her voice dropping to a lusty purr. Their eyes were suddenly separated by Cait’s hand, snapping her fingers between them.

“Hey! Hey!” the big girl shouted, trying to balance glaring at the women and keeping her eyes on the road. “Not the energy we’re bringing into the bar! Kennedy’s mom was about one step away from giving me a handjob under the table last time I saw my parents, and I do not want to make that a pattern.”

Kennedy looked at Cait appalled, while Lira scowled at her.

“What!?” Cait asked as she turned off the main road towards the cul-de-sac she always parked in. “How am I being the fucking adult here!?”

IT IS PRETTY FUCKING WEIRD TO SEE

Breastman was sat in the back of the SUV with Gwyn and Lira, and had patched into comms for the ride and in anticipation of the crowded bar. His bewildered posh accent broke both of the women’s feigned affront.

“Fiiiiinnnnee,” Lira whined, slumping back into her seat as she took off her seatbelt. “I’ll restrain myself to some light groping.”

“Of course,” agreed Cait, hopping out of the driver's seat. “I’m not trying to be unreasonable.”

As the rest of the gang piled out of the car, Breastman joined Cait, staring at a spot just down the sidewalk. A dark oil stain was still visible, over a month later, where Nick’s truck had hopped the curb and slammed into Cait. That technically hadn’t been what changed their lives, but it had certainly been the exclamation point that made them notice.

“Come a long way, huh buddy?” Cait asked, holding her fist out for a low tentacle. Breastman ignored it, pulling himself up to wrap her in a tight hug.

THIS COULD HAVE GONE A LOT OF WAYS FOR ME, CAIT

I BLAME YOU FOR IT GOING SO WELL

Cait chuckled, patting his smooth purple center mass.

“Didn’t do it alone, my dude,” she laughed, peeling him off of her. “C’mon, let's have a nice night with the people that have made this good for both of us.”

Breastman patted her on the shoulder once more, before swinging over to mount a giggling Gwyn like a backpack. For her part, Cait extended an arm each to Kennedy and Lira, which Kennedy took, but Lira just rolled her eyes and pushed open the door to the bar.

The dive wasn’t big, and Lira was not its usual clientele. That meant all eyes were on the smoking hot redhead as her own emerald peepers scanned the crowd for Cait’s parents. Even if she hadn’t seen a picture before, the middle aged man whose eyes were about to pop out of his head gawking at her ass had enough of Cait’s features that she would have been able to make an educated guess.

She dodged Cait’s grab, bouncing over to the big table the pair sat alone at, wrapping the surprised man in a big hug.

“Hey Dad-in-Law!” she said brightly, before repeating it on Cait’s mom before her father could respond. “Hi Mom!”

“Wha—” both of Cait’s parents responded, before Cait yanked Lira off of her mother.

“Mom, Dad, meet Lira. My girlfriend, and not your child, legally or otherwise,” Cait said, glaring playfully at the redhead, who beamed at her parents.

“Yet!” Lira added. “It would be rude of your daughter not to make an honest woman of me aft—”

“Hi,” Kennedy said, her hand clamped firmly over Lira’s mouth. She unwrapped her other from around Cait’s arm, extending it towards her dad. “Kennedy Swan. Cait’s, uh, other girlfriend. I think you’ve met my mom.”

Cait’s mom, Antonia, gave a shocked little shake of her head before she schooled her expression into a pleasant, welcoming smile.

“Yes! We had a lovely dinner with Director Swan a few weeks ago. A pleasure to meet you, Kennedy, Cait’s talked a lot about you!” she said, brightly, taking Kennedy’s hand after her husband, only a slight tension in her eyes betraying the fact that the situation was well outside her comfort zone.

“Is that so,” Kennedy responded, giving a sly smile to a blushing Cait before yelping as Lira bit a finger.

“What about me!?” Lira complained, using Kennedy’s surprise to slip her gag.

“You too!” volunteered Elliot, Cait’s father. He looked surprisingly serious as he continued. “Lira, I do need to be up front with you. We take this pretty seriously. I’m worried your abilities would be considered cheating, and that can ruin the game for everyone, so please, none of that brain Wikipedia during trivia, alright?”

The trio of women looked at each other before breaking out into laughter.

“You were right!” Lira said, bracing herself on Cait’s shoulder. “First full sentence he said!”

“I’m his daughter!” Cait responded, wiping a tear of mirth from her eye. “I warned you!”

Elliot looked a little cross at what seemed like mockery, but his expression quickly wiped to surprise as Breastman plopped down on top of the table.

HEY

SORRY I HIT YOUR DAUGHTER WITH A TRUCK

“Oh! Yeah, I brought the whole gang. This is Breastman BREAST MAN, formally Nick Fein, failed truck driver, successful superhero. Just read the hat, he’s funny but don’t talk much. The bodacious nerd coming up behind him is Gwyn, his glove.” Cait introduced the pair, and again, her dad’s eyes nearly fell out of his skull when Gwyn walked up. Since she and B-man had become more intimate, she’d been dressing a bit more provocatively. That really just meant she wore tanktops a lot, but when you had G cups, that ended up doing more than was needed to tip the scale. She glared at Cait as she placed a possessive hand on B-man’s hat.

“His what?” she hissed.

“You heard me,” Cait said with a wink, waving to Qi and Dawn walking in behind them. “Bringing up the rear are Qi and Dawn. They are our local dragon, and the reason the whole city looks like an arboretum, respectively.”

“A pleasure,” Dawn said, inclining her head, making the charms she’d re-hung on the vines that adorned them jingle. “You have raised a wonderful daughter, Mr. And Mrs. Smith.”

“Yeah, uh, what she said,” Qi muttered, grabbing one of the tall chairs and sitting at the high top. Cait winced at her discomfort. She’d known things would probably be awkward for Qi once Dawn was back, and doubly so now that her, Kennedy, and Lira’s relationship had more or less solidified. To be honest with herself, she wasn’t certain how to play things to make them better for the dragon.

She didn’t have to though, as Lira plopped down in Qi’s lap, wiggling between her and the menu.

Might have to explain this dynamic to my parents, but fuck it, wouldn’t be the weirdest thing they’ve gotten used to. Cait caught Lira’s wink and grinned back, watching Qi’s own face lose some of its tension. She returned her attention to her parents, their expectant gazes making her realize she’d missed something.

“Uh….”

“Your mom just asked how we met, babe,” Kennedy said, with a smirk and a gentle elbow to her ribs.

“Oh! You guys probably saw it, actually. Kennedy used her powers to guide me out of the shit-monster that first night, and I know that footage got plenty of replay, since the face she was making when she saw me naked was almost as hot as, you know, me being naked.”

Cait’s mom grimaced, but her dad gave her a high five. Kennedy blushed, however she didn’t actually protest. Cait hadn’t lied, after all.

The rest of them found seats around the table, Cait next to Qi and Lira, with Kennedy on the other side, and her parents across from the 3+1ple. They did give Qi and Lira some odd looks, but society’s comfort with physical intimacy between even heterosexual women meant it didn’t raise their eyebrows too far.

“Cait, what’s actually good here?” Lira asked over the menu Qi held. “This place doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.”

“Woooooow, I forget you never leave AEGIS, you fuckin’ snob,” Cait teased, but knew Lira was right. Lynn’s didn’t look like much, especially when you were used to the high quality dining facilities on campus. “If I’m being honest, with some stuff on the menu, you’re playing roulette, sometimes the meatball sub kicks ass, sometimes it's inedible. I pretty much always get the fish and chips, you get a fuck ton of it and its consistently yummy.”

A slap on the back heralded the arrival of Bobbi, the ever present Monday night bartender. She set an enormous pitcher of water down in front of Cait, having learned quickly that it was easier just to serve the good stuff in bulk if she didn’t want to spend the night ferrying glasses of ice water back and forth to her.

“Hey Cait!” she said, bubbly as always. “Been awhile! Big-Time Guardian been too busy to help out her parents and team Clueless huh?”

“I mean, yeah!” Cait protested. She had felt bad about having to ditch this particular part of her past-life routine, but… “You’ve seen the news recently right? Things are fucked! Des Moines needs its Bulletproof Bimbo!”

“I don’t like that nickname,” her mom interjected, lips tight in disapproval. “It seems degrading.”

“Right? I keep trying to get The Caped Cumsl—”

Qi’s talon covered Lira’s mouth this time, and proved immune to her many bites.

“Don’t listen to her. She started Bulletproof Bimbo, I was in the gym the first time she used it,” Qi explained.

“And that’s one of the reasons I like it!” Cait said, winking at Lira’s green eyes over Qi’s claw. “It comes from a place of love, mom. Could be a hell of a lot worse, like whatever Lira was going to say.”

Qi yelped and shook her hand off as Lira started to work her tongue between its fingers.

“She’s right! It was gonna be worse!” the redhead said, with a gleefully wicked grin.

The table put in their orders, and Cait’s dad went over the rules of trivia night, quickly followed by the host doing exactly the same thing. Taking that as his cue to continue talking, Elliot turned around, trying hopelessly to get the whole group in frame for a selfie.

Cait ignored his pleas, while the more kind hearted of the group spent the next few minutes smiling at the camera. Cait looked its way one or two times, knowing he had probably taken a couple dozen snaps and one would almost certainly have everyone looking the right way.

Cait was wrapped in the warm comfort of familiarity as the game began, with the team sweeping the first round of questions. They decided that Gwyn was disqualified from all science related questions in round 2, since none of them believed that she knew element 106 was Seaborgium, then be able to spell it right for the double down, without it being part of her Altered knowledge. Cait had been so focused on her friends and family, she hadn’t noticed the first couple times her phone went off. When she finally did, she saw 3 messages from Lira, and cocked her head at the girl before checking them.

L: did you fuck that chick’s girlfriend or soemthing?

L: the brunette babe across the bar.

L: fucking seriously, C, look, that girl has been staring lasers at you since we sat down. She either wants to hate-fuck or hate-kill you maybe both.

Cait’s eyes widened as she met Lira’s exasperated gaze, following the flick of her gaze across the room.

She honestly wasn’t sure how she’d missed the woman, even without the hellish inferno of that glare. She was gorgeous, in the same way Cait was, no makeup, just great genetics and smooth muscle. Her skin was tanned darker than Cait’s and the only blonde in her high fade chestnut hair were in highlights along the wave of her bangs, looking like the sun had put them there.

Her eyes were a cold steel blue, striking, adding an almost physical weight to her glare as Cait finally met her gaze.

The look wasn’t one Cait was un-used to. Typically it meant what Lira had said, that Cait had put her dick in someone somebody else had mistakenly thought was exclusively theirs. It had been a loooong fuckin’ time since the days that was common though, and Cait didn’t recognize this woman. A chill ran down her spine, and her eyes flicked back to Lira, filled with rising panic. She went to type a message to the girl but found her phone already vibrating.

L: already checked, not a character.

The blue glow was fading from Lira’s eyes as she let out an honest-to-god witch cackle.

Elliot and Qi broke off their debate about which president of the old USA had started NASA to stare at her in bewilderment.

“He’s wrong about it being Eisenhower, but it's not THAT funny, L,” Qi said, getting a huff of annoyance from Cait’s father.

“You weren’t even alive when the United States existed!” he protested. “Trust me on this one! You guys already talked me out of the longest home run being Babe Ruth, I’m calling in that debt!”

Cait smirked at the familiar scene, happy to not be on the receiving end for once. For what it was worth, she was pretty sure her dad was right. She was pulled out of the happy thought by a tap on her shoulder. She looked down to see a hand tattooed almost entirely black, save for bare skin spelling D-VI-L. She followed the well-muscled arm up to those cold blue eyes, still filled with an incandescent, burning hate.

Fuck do I know D-VI-L from? Cait wondered, as the woman parted her lips to speak.

“Can I talk to you outside?” she asked, her voice kept carefully neutral, almost. There was a tremor of rage beneath that placid tone, one Cait wouldn’t have noticed before Kennedy had made her better at picking up people’s tells.

Cait flicked her eyes to Lira, whose eyes sparkled wickedly with mischief, and to Kennedy, who was looking annoyingly appreciatively at the beautiful badass accosting Cait. She sighed, and nodded.

Not like she can hurt me, and Kennedy seems excited. Maybe it will be a hate-fuck scenario, sometimes those are the best ones.