Recipient: museofspeed

Title: End in Lovers Meeting

Notes: This is utterly not canon-compliant. Don't even try :) I'm very very sorry that there isn't really any Spanish in their conversation, but my Spanish is mostly confined to ordering food and telling people not to lean against the door in the New York subway. I didn't have enough to time to do the research I'd usually do.

Jaime wondered if it was possible to arrange a Titans emergency. There had to be an alien invasion isomewhere/i, right? Fire, flood, famine? Bank robbery? Lost kitten?

From her perch on the couch next to him, Traci jabbed him with a pointy elbow. "No."

"What?" he asked as Milagro stood in the doorway arguing with their parents over whether she had to stay for dinner.

"No, you're not getting out of this." Traci's smile was just a little bit tense. "I got dressed up, blew off a cool trip to Paris, and we're going to go through with this now."

"But I don't wanna have to see my stinky brother and his stinky girlfriend," Milagro said, scowling. "What if they kiss or something?"

Dad was obviously hiding a snicker behind his cough, Jaime noted, but Mom's poker face was perfect as she said, "I hardly think that's likely."

"But last Friday--"

"Enough!" His father said hastily as Jaime buried his face in his hands.

"Next time I'm using a concealment spell," Traci muttered out of the corner of her mouth.

"Are you kidding?" Jaime said with a sigh. "I wouldn't be surprised if she could find a way to see right through one. She's iscary/i sometimes."

"So, Traci," Mom said, steering Milagro by the shoulders into a chair, "where do you go to school?"

Traci shot Jaime a slightly panicked look. "I, um, travel a lot, helping my dad and the other Croatans. You know, the magical detectives?"

Mom frowned as she sat on the loveseat next to Dad.

"I've had a lot of tutors, though," Traci said quickly. "I've gotten a very...broad education."

Jaime shot his father a desperate look.

"But don't you need--" Mom began.

"Bianca," Dad said, patting her arm. "Please, there will be time to debate her father's parenting choices later, I'm sure."

Milagro had been watching this byplay with skepticism, but homed in quickly on the most important part. "Wait, you don't have to go to school? I wanna be a sorcerer, can you teach me?"

"I thought you wanted to be a Green Lantern," Jaime said. The terror of the thought of Milagro as a Green Lantern would never fade, he suspected.

"Of course I'm gonna be a Lantern, but I have to wait for the Guardians to decide I'm old enough. I wanna be a sorcerer now and not have to go to school."

"That's not how it works," Jaime said. "You have to be born with the powers to be like Traci."

"How do you know I wasn't?"

Mom and Dad looked alarmed, but Traci swiftly said, "Sorry, Milagro, but you're not a born sorcerer. I would have sensed it immediately."

From the mulish look on her face, Jaime suspected he'd better keep an eye on Milagro or he was going to find her trying incantations and Dios only knew what else she might get up to.

Dad came to the rescue again. "You're a detective, then? Not a superhero?"

"I guess so." Traci shrugged. "I don't worry that much about the labels. There are things that need to be done and I can do them. So I do."

"But you're so young," Mom said softly. Her eyes seemed sad.

Jaime wasn't entirely sure which one of them she was talking about. He swallowed the first few things he wanted to say. "Traci," he said in a tone that he was sure screamed desperation, "did I tell you about the colossal train wreck that was Paco's last date? Y'know, when he tried to take her to that new restaurant?"

Milagro crossed her arms, looking bored, but Mom and Dad laughed their way through the story, even hearing it a second time.

Thankfully, before Jaime had to think of a second safe topic of conversation, he heard the oven beep and everyone was making their way to the dinner table. There was half an hour of safety during which everyone passed food, ate, and generally talked about, well, food. It was hard to go wrong when your girlfriend was praising your mother's fajitas and everyone was debating the best kind of chorizo.

Surprisingly, it was Dad who screwed up the peace this time. "Are you a member of the Teen Titans also?" he asked Traci.

She shook her head. "I thought it would be weird to be on the same team as Jaime while we were--"

"Kissing?" Milagro asked, bouncing up in her seat.

"Dating," Traci said, ignoring her. "I do help the Titans sometimes, though, when they call."

Jaime was about to change the subject, but his mother beat him to the punch. "How dangerous are the Titans' missions?" she asked, putting her fork down with a clatter.

"Mom?"

"He'll never give me a straight answer, so I thought I would ask you."

"Mom!"

"I would call someone like Batman or Superman, but Jaime won't give me their numbers."

"Mom..."

Milagro was helplessly giggling at him and Dad was leaning slightly back in his chair, a pose that showed he'd already decided to stay out of this one. Or else he'd already eaten too much.

Traci looked back and forth between them. "Jaime..."

"Your call," he said.

Her smile was sudden and sweet. "You're a good man, Jaime Reyes." She turned to his parents. "Sometimes they're very dangerous. Some of the people and aliens he fights here in town are very dangerous too. But he's really good at what he does. He and the scarab make a great team."

Jaime felt himself blush and he looked away. "I've got good people to back me up," he mumbled.

"Like your family," Traci said.

Still looking away, he smiled. "Yeah, like my family."

"Even me?" Milagro asked.

Laughing, Jaime tossed a balled-up napkin at her. "Even you, squirt." He finally managed to look at his parents, who both looked thoughtful. "Can we just eat dinner now?" he asked.

"That depends," his mother said.

"On what?" Jaime and Traci said.

"What you were doing last Friday that Milagro saw."

Jaime groaned.

--end--