ic Count Your Blessings

[Electra]

"I know a bit," Miss A replied, setting down her enormous confection and turning her attention to the cooking in progress. "If you've got some butter and brown sugar and a casserole dish, I can take care of those for you." Rather relieved to have a concrete task to focus on, she found a peeler on the counter and began deftly peeling and cubing the sweet potatoes. "It must be nice for you, being able to have all your family over for the holidays," she commented, conveniently forgetting to respond to Gina's earlier comments. "Especially with the little ones around. I'm sure you must be looking forward to Christmas already." 

[alderwitch]

Talya smiled as Eden took off like a shot towards the latest arrival and shifted Mia onto one black clad hip, once more untangling the delicate string of pearls from chubby baby fingers. "As soon as you can manage the latch, you're going to be right in my jewelry box, aren't you?" She commented to the baby and then offered the most recent arrival a slight nod of her head.

 

"Super powers are really no promise of punctuality. If anything, it makes you more likely to be tardy than not. The trouble that Erik can get into in a simple trip to the sandwich ship alone," the British spy's voice was dryly bemused before she tipped her head back towards Min in an undertone. "I promised Steve I would help put Miss A at ease and although its tempting to beat a strategic retreat, I suppose I really ought keep my word. Do you want to take our little magpie here, or shall I continue to hide behind a beloved grandchild as shield?"

 

Her humor was obvious as she leaned in to press a fond kiss to the dryad's angular cheekbone. Despite the contact, there was no smudge from her lipstick. This, after all, was the same shade of red she wore in costume. It had taken some real searching to find a lipstick that didn't smear in battle. 

[Avenger Assembled]

"The name confused me upon hearing it," said Steve with great frankness, "especially once I learned that it came not from some ancient custom but rather that it was slang." He folded his hands before him and said seriously, "But despite that, I believe the shootout provides the greatest and most edifying drama for those who watch the sport." He kept shooting glances over at the kitchen, nervous ones as he thought about Gina alone inside the robot there, but kept his attention focused on the conversation he was having with Erik. "So..." He considered asking if Erik's Gina had  heard about the new relationship yet, but quickly discarded that idea - if not, the secret would here be given away. His hands pulled at his pants-covered knees for a moment as he considered what to say, "I have often thought there should be...super-powered athletics in greater quantity. Imagine these men," he said with a nod to the television, "playing in a storm created by Thrude or Comrade Frost." 

[Gizmo]

Erik made a wet sound at Steve's support of the shootout, making himself much more comfortable on the couch than the big man with his straight backed posture. "See, this is how I know we're very different guys. hermann," he chided good-naturedly but without getting any further into debating the merits of tie-breaking methods. Steve had seen the singular focus with which the fencer could track multiple moving bodies at once and it was clear Erik was paying only cursory attention to the game on the television, glancing frequently back toward the door at the other end of the large room. "Yeah, you could do some neat stuff," he agreed distractedly. "People get pretty hung up on what's fair and the tradition of what's normal and all, though, yeah? They can react pretty, uh, strongly when you introduce change to something they love. So you have to be, y'know, careful." He craned his neck again before turning back to Steve. "So! Anyway. How'd you convince the lady friend to come? She's usually busy with something, I guess?"

[Gizmo]

"I'm sure 'the more the merrier' is written somewhere on our family crest," Gina drawled with a small but pleased smile, looking out of the kitchen toward the front door before rolling herself over to the pantry to retrieve the items Miss Americana had requested. The cupboards had been arranged so that everything was neatly and efficiently organized in those drawers easily reached while the higher shelves were either empty or occupied by less frequently used items. The amount of time it took Gina to sort through things to find the brown sugar suggested that she didn't do much cooking herself despite being well prepared for the task. "Eden's old enough to really know what's going on this year so Christmas ought to be quite the thing, yes, ha. Nice to have an excuse to have everyone come to me, hm?"

 

"I think that has less to do with powers and more to do with him being a chucklehead," Ellie opined as she ushered Buffy into the house. She made a token effort to show the other young woman around but it was tough to compete with the inherent drama of her brother's partners. "Are you guys going to break things to mi mama tonight? What, wanted to make sure there were witnesses?" She was aiming for dry humour to match Talya but she shifted back and forth from foot to foot all the same. In the meantime a stockily athletic girl of ten or eleven introduced herself seriously to Buffy and dutifully asked if she'd like anything to drink, having extended the same offer to her uncles by the television.

[April]

Min had smiled and returned Talya's kiss with one of her own before taking their youngest daughter from the former thief.  Mia, for her part, seemed content to trade the string of pearls for a length of her mother's white hair, wasting no time in clenching it in her tiny fist.  "You can't avoid her forever, my dear songbird," Min said in a whisper meant for Talya's ears only.  "That said, you may need your hands free, I'm pretty sure she still has handcuffs around here somewhere."

 

"Go, help Steve and Americana."  The dryad favored the Englishwoman with a warm smile, "I will be right here if you need me."

[R. Bluefish]

Buffy accepted the offer of a drink, asking for a soda of whatever variety might be available - booze and superpowers rarely combined well, in her limited experience, and anyway she felt vaguely uncomfortable asking a child for alcohol. It was like carding in reverse - are you old enough to be giving me this beer, little lady? And whatever the case, this was her first meeting with the entire Espadas clan, not to mention the other Interceptors. Getting wasted and running around at super-speed with a lampshade on her head, while probably fun at the time, would not reflect too well on her at a later date.

 

Following the smell of food like a hound, she poked her head into the kitchen. "I have bread," she announced to the room in general, waving the loaves to emphasize the statement. "Anybody need any help in here? I can do things very fast. I can set a table so fast it would make your head spin. I can also lift heavy things and..." she ran down a mental checklist, "teleport, although I can't think of how that would help here."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Well, we have been together for some time," said Steve carefully, making the little circular gestures with his hands that meant he was telling a story while leaving things out. It wasn't the first time Erik had seen him move like that when discussing his relationship with the gorgeous paragon. "Neither of us had a place to go for your Thanksgiving holiday before this year. It seemed a day for family." Which was true enough, given all that he'd seen about Gina and her family. "She had been concerned you did not like her." It was not unusual for Gina to believe that people did not like _her_, of course - but disliking Miss Americana was something else entirely.

 

"As for the hockey game," he went on, "I think of...another version of the game. The men and their weapons, pitted together to win their game, but amidst a mighty winter storm, perhaps while great beasts battle each other in the names of their respective patrons. The sport would see men against men - and men, united, against gods." It was more poetic than Steve usually got - but this was an unusual conversation. 

[Gizmo]

"What? That's crazy!" Erik protested, sitting upright and looking as alarmed as if Steve had just announced that the house was on fire. "We've worked together a bunch of times, like that thing with the ninjas and the pirate guy and all those robots!" The younger man's forehead furrowed as he wracked his memory for something that should have tipped him off sooner. "Aw, hell, I must have said something. Lo siento, Steve, I'll figure something out and fix it." The idea that he'd offended or alienated Americana by accident was distressing but not exactly unprecedented given the way his mouth could sometimes get away from him but thinking that he'd unknowingly put strain on his friend's relationship and made an ally feel unwelcome in his home was different altogether. "Did she say why? Ugh, and I was just a wiseass about the desert, too."

[Avenger Assembled]

Steve, who Erik had once seen carry on a conversation while absorbing the power of a house transformer, tensed slightly, gripping the loose fabric of the pants at his knees for just a moment. He opted, with some consideration, not to mention what he'd heard about the fight with Freebooter - Gina had never liked talking about the piratical cyberkinetic with him, so it likely wasn't an important factor anyway. "There was some friction over the Archetech name. I know that the events of that day," he need not name it here, "troubled you and your family afterwards." Gina had purged the company of Archeville's technology, his loyalists, and much else, but how convincing would that be to people who had been made slaves? "She wants you to know that those days are long gone," he went on, making the awkward hand gestures that meant he was trying to say something without having the correct words. 

[Fox]

"Bread cutting," Mara supplied in answer to Buffy's question; she wasn't running the kitchen, being slightly less domestic than a responsible older brother or experienced mother of two, but she'd already been giving a hand where she could to save herself the horrors of idle conversation with people who weren't Ellie. Food service, even in a casual setting, was an algorithmic problem: start state, end state, steps to get there. She could handle that.

 

"Looks good," she evaluated, cocking her head at the bread. "Smells good. Should taste good, but served whole people will have to tear off pieces. Crumbs everywhere. Terrible. Knife," she announced, producing a well-sharpened serrated number with alacrity and precision that implied either great familiarity with the kitchen, or an excellent memory. "At normal speeds, please. Crumbs, sharp things, children."

[alderwitch]

"I can handle myself around a pair of handcuffs," Talya reminded Min with a private smile as she leaned in to both return the kiss and hand over Mia to her mother. She leaned her brow briefly against Min's and added, very quietly, "Thank you."

 

Patting Eden's hair once, Talya made her way through the small crowd in the entry way towards the door of the kitchen. "You know what they say, cut in haste and repent in leisure," she added dryly before shaking her head once at Ellie as she passed the other girl. "I don't think we need to get into all of that although when it does come up, I shall keep your offer of witnesses in mind."

 

A brief quirk of her lips made it clear that she was teasing as she slipped past and into the kitchen. "Do you hold Christmas here, Gina, or is that something that occurs at the apartment?" Talya asked as she came into the tail end of the conversation, as if the details of the Espadas' Christmas were not a regular topic of a certain three year old's conversation.

[Gizmo]

While Yolanda squeezed past Talya into the now somewhat cramped kitchen to retrieve the requested drinks Gina deftly rolled backward in a tight three point turn so that her chair tucked neatly into one corner of the room, leaving her facing the rest of the varied women. "Just cutting the bread would be lovely," she agreed with a friendly smile for Buffy and an appreciative look in Mara's direction for giving the nervous younger woman something reasonably safe to focus on. "I'm Gina, Erik and Ellie's madre, if you hadn't guessed. I owe you a big hug from what I hear. I have to get him to make me a chart to keep track of all you kids and your powers, though, te lo juro."

 

The smile didn't leave her face when she turned to address Talya but the warmth drained out of it quickly. "Oh, well. We did it here last year, since there's more space but I think we'll most likely do it at Erik and Min's apartment this time around," she replied lightly, folding her hands neatly in her lap. It all had the air of an off-handed comment but Miss Americana at least knew that the answer was a sudden reversal of what the matriarch had been describing minutes before. "They're still turning that place into a home, you know, and it's so important to have good, family memories in a place for that. Don't you think?"

 

In the expectant pause that followed Yolanda silently slid a glass of ginger ale toward Buffy on the kitchen table and although she was holding another pair of glasses for her uncles the girl stayed put, looking back and forth between Gina and her guests, understanding that something interesting was going on if not what, specifically.

[Electra]

As the kitchen filled with women and girls engaged in conversation and food preparation, it was easy for Miss A to fade into the background, as much as somebody with her looks ever could. Without the time to prebake the sweet potatoes, she began deftly peeling them and chopping them into chunks, filling a pot with hard little orange squares as she listened to the conversations flowing around her. It wasn't so bad like this, really, being in amongst the action without having to contribute was letting her regain a little bit of perspective. She was Miss Americana today, and Miss A didn't have trouble in any social situation. Just because the circumstances were far more familiar to an old left-behind life didn't mean that it was squishy, doughy Gina Evans in the line of fire today. She was fairly certain that by the time the meal was served, she'd have it sorted firmly in her head. 

 

The change in tone of the conversation drew her attention to Talya and Gina Espadas, facing off in the ice-edged civility of family members who disliked each other and wouldn't admit it. If she were pushed, she'd have to admit that she thought the thing between Erik, his wife Min, and Talya that Steve had described to her was a little weird. If Steve ever brought another woman home to Gina's house, he'd be out on his ass before there was even time to assess any compatibility. But she herself was also the first exhibit in evidence of the absolute utter weirdness of the love lives of superheroes. Wouldn't it be lonely to live forever, knowing your partner was doomed to the handful of years accorded mortal man? It might make the traditional strictures of "till death do us part" seem obsolete, if not downright laughable. Maybe it made sense that people should take their happiness wherever they found it, with whoever made them happy. From what Steve had said, they were doing okay. Steve's version of okay wasn't always reliable, but she couldn't really judge that, either. 

 

In any case, Talya was Steve's friend, and she'd been nice to Miss A in the few interactions they'd had. She seemed like a good person, caught in a very uncomfortable situation. Miss Americana picked up her pot full of diced sweet potatoes and turned toward the big double sink, only to catch her foot on a slightly open cupboard door and lurch forward, dumping potatoes in a noisy orange cascade all over the tile floor. "Oh no, I'm so sorry!" she babbled, looking entirely mortified. "Oh wow, what a mess! They'll rinse off, I guess? Yolanda, Buffy, could you help me pick these up?" she asked, giving the girls a rueful smile. 

[R. Bluefish]

"Oh, work work work," Buffy said jokingly, setting the bread down on the counter. "Buffy cut this, Buffy pick up that." For an instant, she vanished into a blur of motion that flashed around the kitchen, like a video that had been suddenly fast-forwarded. When she stilled, she was tossing the last potato back into the once-more full pot. "Should probably wash them at regular speed, though, or it will get very wet very fast in here. Trust me, I know. I tried to do the dishes like that once and soaked the whole kitchen."

 

Returning to the bread, she picked up the knife, laid one of the loaves on a cutting board, and began sawing it into neat slices - at regular speed. "Pleasure to meet you, Gina," she said over her shoulder. "I see my fame precedes me." The atmosphere of the room was not lost on her, but she herself was no stranger to family drama, and she had always found that when you didn't have the full details, the best course of action was to grin like an idiot and pretend not to notice. Which was, come to think of it, not hugely different from what she did all the time.

[alderwitch]

Talya offered a pleasant smile in return, her hands lightly clasped in front of her dark skirt as if she were unaware of the tension. Her blue gaze cut to the beautiful paragon as she 'slipped' just in time to ease any building tension. Her appreciation for the woman went up a notch. On the surface, it was a little hard to understand what Steve and the almost too-perfect ArcheTech genius had in common but Talya's impression of Miss A had started positive and was steadily growing. She gave the smallest incline of her chin in appreciation to Miss A, almost imperceptible. "It looks like Buffy has it well in hand. Super speed must be one of the more useful of 'gifts', I must say."

 

With the moment broken by the distraction, Talya turned her attention back to the Espadas matriarch. "I couldn't agree more, Gina. A holiday is merely just another day without friends and family to share it." She agreed in her crisp accent, shifting slightly so her posture was more conversational than confrontational as she put her rather formidable social skills to easing the tension in the room, "Although, Thanksgiving isn't a holiday I typically take part in. British angst over perfectly good tea wasted and all that."

[Ecalsneerg]

The front door suddenly shoved open, and a couple of footsteps could be heard. "Hi, sorry we're late!" came Chris's voice from the hallway. "I was on the phone to my mom." He didn't rush through as he usually did, appearing in the living room, helping a heavily pregnant Liz, in a black maternity dress into the room and onto a couch. As soon as she was safely settled, he casually hurled himself into the other corner of the sofa. He was wearing a dark green suit, which looked rumpled and slept in. "Man, I glanced in the kitchen. Looks crammed as hell. So many women, so little space."

 

Liz rolled her eyes. "Thank you for having us," she intoned monotonously. "See, not hard?" She shook her head, and looked over at Erik and Steve. She didn't know Steve well, but they'd spoken a few times at HAX. "Espadas. Hi, Steve, how's it going? Didn't think they'd manage to rope you into one of these things."

[Gizmo]

Erik was already getting to his feet as Chris flopped down, distracted enough that he didn't even pause to give the younger man a hard time over his tardiness. "Hey, hermano. Did you know Americana thinks I don't like her? I gotta smooth that over..." Running a hand through his hair he belatedly remembered to give Liz a small wave. "Hogwarts, hey, sorry. You look good, glowing and all that. We're probably going to be eating soon so take it easy. Ask Steve about his ideas for improving hockey." He offered the new arrivals a grin that looked a little frayed around the edges from stress as he headed for the kitchen.

 

He met his sister along the way carrying Eden, the latter having decided she wanted to go up upon finding her mother occupied with Mia. "Got Vince's laptop set up at the table," Ellie reported, walking along with him. "He said he's buffering but I think he just overheard the conversation in the kitchen and wanted to avoid the awkward small talk for a little longer."

 

"C'mon, Mama takes hosting super seriously and Talya's weapons grade charming," Erik argued as they reached the door. "I'm sure it's fine. Hey, Miss A, I--" He stopped mid-sentence at the sea of stiff smiles and squared shoulders filling up the kitchen with three generations of women. Closing his mouth with an audible click in the thick silence he amended, "You know what, doesn't have to be right now, actually. ...so, hey, Chris and Liz are here. You know she's pregnant? Crazy, right?"

[April]

Min has exceptional hearing, a trait that many so often forget, and easily heard everything that was being said in the kitchen--and how it was said.  As a consequence she was already rising from her place on the couch, youngest daughter in her arms and making her way to the kitchen to give Talya the needed, but unasked for, support.

 

It wasn't out of some misunderstanding that the dryad did what she did next, out of some sort of naivety toward social mores.  Simply put, it was Min subtly declaring both how she felt about Talya and what she thought of this nonsense.  Joining the Englishwoman's side, Min wrapped one arm around her and rested her head on Talya's shoulder.

 

"And that's why you will be there," she stated, looking up at Talya.

[Avenger Assembled]

The situation in the kitchen, from what Steve could hear, was growing more and more dire. He knew that the emotional stakes for Gina in there were high, for all his confidence that she could rally and handle herself. He was confident that Erik, a man who always seemed to be able to talk his way out of any situation, would be able to reassure Miss Americana that there was no animosity between them. Well. Mostly confident. "Yes, hello, Elizabeth and Christopher," he said, craning his neck so he could watch the affray in the other room. "I brought Miss Americana as well. I have rarely socialized with the Interceptors in this way," he admitted. Trying to make small talk, though not really paying attention, he said, "Are you well?" he asked Liz, having been aware of her pregnancy longer than most of the rest of the people in the apartment. "Are there any...mutations?" he asked distractedly, thinking back to the last conversation he'd had about possible children. 

 

Rising to his feet, he rose to the kitchen door, looming behind Erik and accidentally trapping him there. In a grave tone, he inquired, "Do any of you need assistance here?" 

[Gizmo]

Erik moved to one side to let Min through carrying Mia which forced Ellie to shift to her left as well toward the countertop and with Steve filling vacated space with his considerable bulk there was not precious little chance of anyone slipping out of the crowded kitchen or getting any actual cooking done. Evidently sensing the uncomfortable jostling or perhaps the tension in the air the youngest Espadas child stirred in Min's arms and began reaching upward toward the dryad's face. "Mmh! Mah!"

 

Slipping about the adults, Yolanda dutifully presented Steve with his drink before finding a spot between the kitchen table and the wall left by moving the chairs out into the living room. She'd dropped all pretence of not being fascinated by the interplay around her but did periodically shoot furtive glances toward Mara and Ellie as though worried she would somehow be in trouble or miss a cue.

 

Eden had decided she wanted to get down from Ellie's arms as quickly as she'd decided she wanted to go up and after examining the faint splotches on the tile where the potatoes had hit the floor with an intent interest she found her way to Min and Talya's feet. Planting her hands on her hips she titled her head up to look at her little sister and pedantically explain, "Mama, Mia! Say Mama!"

 

Clearing his throat loudly as if that would somehow distract his mother from giving the affectionate women a slightly confused and increasingly suspicious look, Erik answered Steve, "Uh, no! No, I think everything is totally fine, yeah." He tried to switch positions again but there really wasn't enough room left for anyone to stand comfortably unless he asked Buffy to stand on the ceiling instead. "Bread looks good!" he told the college student a little too enthusiastically, hoping against hope that drawing attention to the guests in their family home would somehow relieve the worst of the loudly unspoken judgement. "You get introduced to everybody yet? You met Miss A at the thing with the dinosaurs anyway, I guess, hah..."

 

Mia gave her sibling a peevish look and twisted in Min's arm to turn away, choosing to focus her attention in the opposite direction, toward Talya. "Muh! Mmuh!" A chubby hand caught the fabric of the Englishwoman's dress and the infant made a less articulate sound of relief and contentment.

 

With her arms free Ellie slid half a step toward the middle of the room to loop an arm around Mara's waist. The gesture would have seemed sweeter if she hadn't also subtly begun tugging her girlfriend back toward the countertop and out of the line of sight between Gina and Talya. "Sounded like dinner's pretty much ready, though, yeah?" she asked pointedly, directing the question toward her mother and ignoring the evident setback with the sweet potatoes. "Can probably get everybody back out to the table, figure out where we're all sitting?"

 

The suggestion got her brother's immediate support but multiple people trying to moved at once only succeeded in more bumping into each other, nearly knocking the glass out of Steve's hands as Erik failed to convey the urgency of the situation to him with intensity of eye contact alone. Completely unbothered by all the activity Eden remained focused on her dictation lesson. "No, Mia! Mum!" she demonstrated clearly, pointing to Min and Talya in turn. "Mama. Mum."

 

"Muh!" Mia insisted in the silence that immediately followed, butting her head into Talya's arm, demanding that someone stop her sister from correcting her.

 

"...aw, nertz," Erik groaned very softly, putting one hand to his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose.

 

With a careful calm that was entirely more worrisome than a larger reaction would have been Gina merely asked, "What."

[Electra]

Miss A gave the turkey in the oven an uncertain look, fairly sure that it was not finished roasting yet, much less had time to rest or be prepared for serving and carving. But as the situation played out with the Espadas children and their uncomfortable revelations, the idea of vacating the kitchen became more and more palatable. "You know what we should do while we're waiting? Let's eat some of the desserts first!" She picked up the truffle tower again and handed it to Steve. "You just put this in the dining room, why don't you? And here, Yolanda, you take this." She gave Yolanda one of the large pumpkin pies, then pressed the other one on Buffy. "Mara, I'll bet there's some whip cream in the fridge there, you want to bring that, and Ellie, you can get hold of the dessert forks? We'll just all clear out to the dining room and let things in here finish cooking." Even dressed down for the holiday, the paragon was her usual hyper-efficient self, except she was speaking with a hint of a drawl and a speech pattern that wasn't quite her usual.

 

A firm nudge for Steve, and gentler nudges here and there began to turn the tide of humanity from the kitchen towards the dining room. Before she left, Miss A paused by Talya and Min. "You want us to take the littles?" she asked quietly. 

[alderwitch]

Talya had turned her shoulder slightly at Min's approach and leaned into the offered embrace, shifting to let her hip bump the dryad's. Her fingertips came up to rest lightly on Min's waist and the smile she turned towards the woman at her support was mutely appreciative, even if Talya's well honed social senses were quite aware of the rapidly unravelling situation. She might - might - have been able to salvage it but the Espadas were nothing if not stubborn, she'd well learned, even those not fully potty-trained. Sometimes, especially the little ones. 

 

Talya had grown used to the timbre of infant disagreement by now and she glanced down at Eden. The rare sight of consternation flickered across her features as she peered down at the toddler's insistent expression and then glanced to the mulish infant holding onto her dress. Talya's soft sigh was almost inaudible under the flat not-quite-a-question from Erik's mother. Social triage, then, starting with the most pressing and moving down the list.

 

"Eden, dearest, it takes a little while to master proper diction. Mia shall grasp it in due time, never fret," Talya said as she unwound her arm from Min's waist to offer elegant hands to Eden and coax her towards the bottle neck. "Miss A, though, is a treasure. Dessert before dinner is a rare treat. Perhaps she'll let you have one of her truffles if you ask very nicely."

 

Talya's voice remained smooth as she glanced up over Eden's head at the paragon and gave a small, subtle nod to her question. Her poised smile never slipped but the relief flashed briefly in her bright blue eyes. She tipped her blond head towards Min then, deferring the question of Mia to her mother even as she reached up to pat the baby's hand clinging to her clothes, "Yes, my little love, very good. Look at you getting all those sounds down."

 

Only after she'd busied herself with dealing with that did Talya lift her gaze towards Erik and his mother. Then, Talya's smile finally slipped, as her expression turned mutely apologetic. Clearly, she should have spent the day hiding in the living room. Her muscles were tense under Min's fingertips but she remained both there and visible; a true testament to Talya's internal fortitude. She could probably have slipped by Steve. Probably. "Well. Perhaps I can take over on washing those vegetables?" 

Edited January 22, 2016 by alderwitch

[April]

Min gave Miss Americana a small nod, and a brief smile of thanks, as she handed off Mia.  She waited a moment for the kitchen to clear before shifting position slightly, placing herself a little forward of Talya and putting herself between Gina and the Englishwoman.

 

"No, my dear songbird," the dryad said quietly, "at least not yet, the four of us need to have a little talk."  She looked down at Gina, offering her mother-in-law a faint smile before sighing.  "Where do you want us to start?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Steve immediately backed Miss Americana's suggestion, a look of relief crossing his face as he helped gather up the desserts. "Yes, a feast," he promised the children warmly. "Come, let us dine on what you love the most." 

 

At the table he took charge, with Yolanda as his right hand, seating the children together, Eden with her booster and Mia in her high chair, then letting the adults sit where they pleased. Yolanda's good work earned her the prize she wanted; the very first truffle off the tower, and a great fat slice of pumpkin pie loaded down with whipped cream from the refrigerator. Yolanda led a healthy lifestyle full of intensive exercise and training - a high-calorie diet was good for her. 

 

For himself he took nothing, but volunteered with blade and silverware in hand to make sure all were fed and more. Regrettably the kitchen door could not be closed, but - "Mara," he suggested to his boss with a subordinate's discretion (he only used her first name by request), "might you play something on your suit radio? The children do love their music." 

 

"I got that one, buddy!" said the laptop, which sprang to life with VINCE behind the screen. The Cyberceptor wasn't in Pilgrim garb this year, or for that matter Native (he wasn't one to repeat a look) instead he wore an oddly old-fashioned suit and tie and was sitting behind a Victorian oak table laden with a full turkey dinner. "Who likes, uh, the Frozen soundtrack, kids?" he declared, earning a slightly muffled "Me!" from the young people at the table. And the strains of Disney's new staple filled the air.