alderwitch

Psyche's serene expression faltered then faded. Lines of tension creased her young face as she battered her senses against the unnatural barrier. Covering her ears with her hands as if they could block the silibant hissing, Psyche gathered every scrap of her force of will into as tight a focus as she could before she threw it out to Mark, hoping the lance was strong enough to reach him despite the barrier. 'We're coming.' She sagged back on her heels, shaking her head to clear the building tension headache. "They have some barrier that's able to block me. I'll try once we're inside again." Psyche had some lingering concerns regarding the effect those murmering voices might have on her powers but that was pure conjecture and not worth voicing. Her voice was calm and steady, "Which means we're doing it the old fashioned way. Wander, Geckoman, you'll have point. I have a feeling they'll know we're coming. Hellion, if this goes bad, you're leaving to go get help. If you hear the call to retreat, I need you to hop, no questions asked."

Alex still ran a selfconcious hand through her hair before redoing her ponytail as it had definately gotten mussed during the afternoon. She rolled her eyes at him as she hid all of the evidence of their junk snacks in her backpack. "Like you have to ask. Flying, of course!" Alex's eyes twinkled. "You could even carry me, all bad comic romantic like."

"He has a place and purpose to what he is now. It is not an affliction," As it was clearly a missunderstanding, Phantom forced her fists to unclench. She floated forward, her cloak still writhing angrily over and through the pews with her movement but her posture wasn't aggressive. Stopping about halfway up the aisle, she switched back to English for the ears of the surrounding motley of heroes. This time her tone was dry, "I apologize for my tardy welcome. I was dealing with... other matters. Prime has not had a visitation of the Angeloi in quite some time. To what do we owe this honor?"

As Mike pulled back, Alex had a delightfully befuddled expression on her face. It wasn't a look she wore often, and it cleared quickly but Mike had the satisfaction of knowing he'd successfully derailed that busy brain of hers. She blinked first at him and then at the setting sun before she unwound herself from his lap and stretched. "I don't think that qualifies quite as torrid," she opinioned with a shy little grin. Alex leaned over him to run a hand through his now legitimately mussed hair, "But its definately a good start. Do I look okay?"

"Well, a lot of kids our age don't have sense," Alex's usual lecturing tone was somewhat thrown off by the hitch in her breathing. Her chin tilted up and her breath sighed out happily. Closing her eyes, she cuddled closer under his arm as she mumbled, "I mean, you, me and Erin are like the only people on the team who haven't already done it and there are way less responsible people in school who prolly have done it without protection n' stuff. Though for a lot of the kids meta physiology, standard protection is of dubious quality at best, completely worthless at worst." Alex's lecture went straight into rambling mode at the touch of Mike's lips against the column of her throat, eventually petering off completely with a happy murmer.

"What exactly was 'the talk' about?" Alex made finger quotes and grinned at him but she leaned her shoulder against his in silent support for his obvious embarassment over the situation, "I assume that you didn't tell him I covered all of that in my 'did you know' lectures when we were seven." Alex had gone through a phase of downloading her questions and facts about the world around them right around that age. Of course one could also say she'd never grown out of that phase.

Her expression eased at his laughter and the answering smile she gave him revealed the dimples in both cheeks, "Just Stesha although she's probably told Derrick. She called Ace but didn't tell him that it was for me. It won't take him overly long to figure it out. I haven't talked to anyone else. Have you?" Without leaving Freedom City, hiding it wasn't going to be possible for that much longer, Taylor mused. Especially considering her costume. At that thought, her expressive face scrunched up.

Taylor bit down on her lip until it was almost white. She didn't blow off his question as it was one of the pressing ones on her mind as well. She brought her other hand up to cradle his between her warm palms. "Jack, in the end, I don't care. I know you're not an evil creature. Our son won't be any more evil by virture of his heritage than you are." Taylor leaned down to feather a kiss over the hand she held, "And you can show him your 'better way' for your kind. Unnatural it might be, but I don't think its wrong."

"I can tell you exactly what ideas she has if you'd like, but I don't think you really want to know." Alex said with another cheeky grin as she plopped the next tile down before reaching over to fix his hair. Giggles kept escaping her as she smoothed down his dark locks but her touch was tender. "It doesn't matter to me. Someplace low key. We could hit up a pizza place."

Just above the stiff gold-edged collar, Taylor's pulse leapt wildly. The answering slow smile she gave him was full of promise before she headed over steal the mike from the DJ. Accepting his hand up onto the platform, she grinned at the cheers and whistles before she had even had the chance to open her mouth. With a laugh, she announced, "I think you all know what I'm about to say, so lets get the bachelors out on the floor." She handed the mike back to the dj and slipped back onto the dancefloor.

Alex gave a little grin and shrug, happy to go along with Mike's hastily constructed plans, "Thanks, Ms. Harris" She plucked the bag from Mike's fingers and fished out her piece before placing it as the door clicked shut. Once his mother was heading back down the stairs, Alex peeked up from her intense focus on the Carcacone board. Her eyes twinkled with amusement and she let out a peal of merry laughter, clearly at his expense. Still giggling, she held out the bag of pieces to him. "Oh, if you could have seen your f-face." She dissolved into happy laughter once more.

Alex giggled and wiggled in his lap to lean in and press a kiss against his lips. It was quick but definately not chaste. She pulled back and then with a mischevious smile, reached up to ruffle his dark hair with her fingertips until it looked mussed before she scooted out of his lap and back to her chair a little breathlessly. Her eyes twinkled amusement at him from accross the table and she silently held out the bag for him to take. "Here, it's still your turn," she added aloud when he didn't move to take it, giving him a teasing grin.

His laugh vibrated the skin under her lips and Alex pressed an amused kiss against the pulse of his throat before she pulled back enough to look up at him while he pestered her about the how's. She blew a huffy breath at being distracted from nuzzling his neck but answered his question without protest, "No, I'd be a zombie. I need to sleep unlike Erin. I just spent several hours churning out AP tests and other test work. A few projects. Some essay work. Mostly the AP tests. Oh, and I SAT'd already too." She scrunched her face up as she ran down the list in her head of everything that she'd done. "I'll have to do some focused work for the major in the next year and then I should be done. I have all my GE's done already though."

She was dry eyed as she squeezed his hand but the warm fingertips around his trembled. Taylor answered promptly. This wasn't the time for the mystical vagueness that was her usual conversational tactic when it came to matters of strange occurances. This 'strange occurance' was so much more personal than that. Taylor responded steadily, "I want to keep it. Him. I want to keep him." Her hand flexed but it would take more than Taylor's accidental use of human strength to do any damage to that hard, cold hand. Her expression creased with worry but she continued without her voice faltering, "Its dangerous. I know it's dangerous. Not just phyisically, but I know how people responded to the marriage. I know this is going to be worse and if - when - there's a baby, he could easily become the focus of that. He won't be accepted by vampires and he won't be entirely human. Other than the fact he's got a heartbeat at least, there's no way to guess what he'll get from either of us. And that's just the tip of the iceburg of problems to work out."

Alex relaxed against him with a soft sigh, her arms going up automatically around his neck. Although she knew precisely how much stronger Mike was, it never gave her a moment of concern as she nestled trustingly against his broad chest. Alex had never been afraid that he would hurt her even accidentally and she never would be. She snuggled into him and tucked her face into the side of his neck, nuzzling against his skin. "Erin's helping. So is James. Its not too bad time wise. I have it right now. I haven't exactly been pushing myself with my classes," her murmur was muffled against his skin but it echoed clearly in his thoughts. Her fingertips strayed up to his newly short dark hair with the same air of delighted curiosity that Alex approached all of life with, "And all my schemes work out just fine, thank you. With only rare and unusual exception."

"Better than I was. Not so tired all the time at least. I don't know if I have more energy or its just that I let myself actually nap when I'm tired now." She responded as she made her way through the room. Taylor was dressed more casually than usual in a pair of frayed jeans that had seen better days and a school sweatshirt that was on the oversized end of the spectrum. The jeans were the best fit she'd found in her closet and the sweatshirt neatly covered that fact up. Taylor leaned up to press a kiss to Jack's cool lips, hugging him gently before she curled up in the seat he'd provided. Her dark eyes were serious and sober as she met his gaze, "I've been thinking a lot and I think... I think we should talk about this all. You, me. The baby." The two words dropped like rocks and Taylor steepled her fingers together, flexing them before she finally couldn't take the distance and reached out a hand to him. "And how we're going to move forward."

Alex reached across the board to capture his hand with her own. As always, her fingers looked almost comically small next to his broad palm as she threaded her fingers through his and laced them together even as she sent her thoughts down their connection in a way that was so organic, it was almost wordless. Only Mike really understood how unnatural speech was to her. Learning to talk had been one of the few things Alex had done on schedule with normal children, only slightly ahead of most lisping toddlers. Because pure thought was so much cleaner, so much more eloquent. She refrained because of the ambient discomfort it caused in other people but with Mike she was free to be herself. 'Don't be absurd.' Images flickered through their link, almost too fast for Mike to process but he was used to it. That was just how Alex thought. It took her a few seconds to sort out the impression she wanted to convey, 'There's so much more that you could do - that you want to do - than earn a top wage. You can save people. Help people. Its what you were born to be. I'd rather you spend your time doing that than worry about money. This is easy for me. There are more important things for your time than this.'

"It is. And it's going to grow. I was planning on making my fortune in college but now that I'm not planning on attending a four year university, I thought I'd get that done now so I can focus on my post grad work after we graduate. I don't think it'll be hard for me but you never know. Best to be careful," Alex said pragmatically as she dropped another tile on the desk and pushed it into place with the tip of her finger. She drummed her fingers on the desk for a moment, considering the small cluster of tiles before she pulled her hand back and nodded to explain that she was done. She watched his face for a moment, her gaze skipping over his beloved face as he glanced down to pick up the cloth bag of tiles. Unconciously, Alex smiled in response to his furrowed brow, "Its just money."

Taylor returned Stesha's hug and pulled back with a wink, "Just lucky, right? Now, you should go show off your boquet to that boyfriend of yours." Taylor gave her a little nudge in Derrick's direction before turning back to Jack. She dropped her voice to a husky murmur meant for his ears and pressed her palm agaisnt his still chest, "Have I mentioned that you look so handsome today? The black tie look suits you." She stepped in closer and lowered her tone conspirtorily, her palm warm through the fabric and a flirty smile on her lips, "You know, its not too late to change your mind on the garter toss. Or, I suppose, you could spend the rest of the night wondering what color I picked. What do you think? Is it bridal white or black lace?"

"I'm not ruthless enough for monoply. Even if I get everything, I just give people free passes." Alex picked her piece and set it down without seeming to pause for thought. She smiled at Mike across the table and shrugged her shoulders. "I am still going into therapy but I want the freedom to help people who really need it. You're going straight into work after Claremont and Zoe needs a college fund. Its financially pragmatic. I'd rather not have to struggle when we get married if we don't have to and we don't."

Alex bounced up from her chair to look over the games in his hands with unconcealed eagerness. "Ooo, Carcacone." She plucked the battered blue box from his fingers before she looked up at his face with a sweet smile as she shook her head. "Don't be silly. I'd tell you. I am the CEO of a new company we founded to buy and sell stocks though. Its churning me a profit of one to two hundred thousand a year. Do you want to go first?" Alex shook the box at him, rattling the pieces.

"Although there are certain societal expectations about changes in behavior, we don't actually have to do any specific 'date things', you know," Alex said seriously to his unspoken thoughts before that radiant smile broke out on her face again. It was like concentrated sunshine. She covered the large hand on her leg with her slender and delicately boned fingers. "I love our friends but I've missed spending time with you too. Its different at Claremont than it was before." Alex pursed her lips thoughtfully, her head tilting to one side. "Boardgame?"

Alex giggled at his open mouthed expression, her cheeks turning pink to match his as she caught snatches of his thoughts. Alex leaned over to press gentle fingertips to his jaw with a little laugh, "You'll catch flies, you know." She paused, tracing the muscles in his cheek with loving fingertips before she moved to sit back once more in the office chair, her lips turned down in regret. "I miss going to the movies but as I'm still sparkley, I'd ruin it for everyone."

Alex laughed at his sudden and obvious discomfort, but she let him change the subject with only a teasing grin as retort, "You know, the usual. I helped Mom program the new gps dad got her for the van. She didn't call Granpa about his present but she didn't send it back either so hopefully they'll start talking again soon. So no news, really." Alex shrugged with the placid calm that came from knowing reconciliation was inevitable. She gave the chair a little spin with one foot, "If its not 'torrid make out session' day, what do you wanna do?" The little smirk was back on her face as she eyed him with wide eyed innocence. Perhaps the teasing was a little bit of vengance for the emo years but Alex had never claimed sainthood.

"Maybe she's trying to give you time alone with your new girlfriend." Alex teased although that was certainly part of the motivation of his mother. Alex had seen her emotional satisfaction as they'd vanished upstairs as easy as nothing the color of the wall paper. She sat down in his desk chair and pulled her backpack onto her lap, "You don't have any soda right now. Your mom's on another raw foods kick. I brought some from my house though as neither of us are too fond of beet juice." Alex dug the cans out of her backpack and lobbed one to Mike with an easy toss. She didn't bother to use her tk as she full well knew his reaction speeds.