Armand called Penny on Tuesday, August 10th, to plan his next date. They talked and somehow ended up on the subject of card games, and Penny was appalled that Armand had never played a card game that didn't involve gambling.

"Card games are so popular in my family, my dad taught me every card game I know! I canNOT believe you don't know a single game besides gambling!" Penny cried.

"What can I say," said Armand with a lighthearted laugh, "I guess I'm just behind on the times. But, I do know tons of magic tricks!" he said trying to impress.

"Neat!" exclaimed Penny. She hadn't pinned him for the magic trick kind of guy, but was impressed. "Well then, why don't we trade? I'll teach you card games and you teach me magic tricks?"

"Sounds like a plan! Let's go to the park again, we can go to "our spot" and I'll bring lunch," he said.

Penny had to almost bite her tongue to keep from squealing; they had a spot.

Needless to say it went much like the last time, a picnic with comfortable chatting plus the cards. And, now that they were familiar with each other's bodies, another roll in the grass.

On the way back home whilst Penny pinned back her newly disheveled hair, they discussed the cards. "You caught on so fast to those card games! You might be able to beat my brother in a match!"

"Oh really, you think so?" Armand asked with a raised eyebrow. How good at cards could some little kid be?

"Ya! Gordon is amazing, I don't know how he does it. He just has a way with the cards. But, with how fast you learned I wouldn't be surprised if you could school him pretty good. I forgot you haven't met him yet," speculated Penny

"Oh ya…" commented Armand a little awkwardly. This whole family thing, even after officially meeting her parents and having an official dinner with them, was still strange. And Armand hated kids. He didn't know how old Gordon Jr. was, but he knew the kid was young and that was enough to make Armand turn up his nose. "I'll have to get on that. But no rush, I'm sure I'll meet him eventually."

Penny slipped her hand in his, her hair in place and smudged makeup wiped away. "He's not home today, over a friend's place as he usually is. You can come over sometime soon, and hopefully he'll be there; we'll figure something out when we get back to my place," she said with a smile. Oh, that smile. It just "melted Armand's heart," if that could be said about him. Her smile was so sweet, so beautiful, so perfect; it drove him wild yet made him feel completely calm and comfortable all at the same time. He grasped her hand a little tighter and smiled back.

"Yes, we'll work something out," he said, letting their conversation dissolve into comfortable silence before they were back talking about cards again.

Armand showed up early at Penny's on Friday, August 13th, at 11am. Penny and he had been indecisive, so they agreed that Armand would show up early and they'd go from there. Gordon would be home, and maybe they'd go somewhere or just hang out all day and play cards. Armand hoped for cards he would love to show off his skills.

Meanwhile, upstairs…

"What do you mean you invited him over?!" cried Penny's mom under her breath.

"I-" tried Penny.

"It's FRIDAY THE 13TH! This is a big day for demons. There is a break in the protective spells we've cast to keep demons from pouring into this world, and it is especially susceptible to their magic on this day. Why didn't you ask me?!" She was fuming now.

"Mom, you were so accepting of him. I thought you wouldn't have a problem. It's Friday the 13th, it's just another day, a superstition. …Right?" asked Penny.

"Penny. Penny, Penny, Penny. When has anything ever been just superstition?" P. asked rhetorically. "Today is the day of bad luck. A day chock-full of negative energy that demons can feed off of it. If they gain enough power to break and hoard to into the human world and put up a decent fight against us, the damage they could do would be more than devastating."

Penny didn't have words as she let her mother's words sink in….

Meanwhile downstairs…

Armand went into the kitchen when no one answered the door. He made his way into the kitchen and set down the flowers he had carefully selected. "I know they'll like these," he thought confidently. He had carefully pruned the flower selection for a bouquet full of flowers without brown spots or bugs. This bouquet was a balance between his tastes and a more family-oriented taste. It was full of reds, oranges and yellows. A balance of darks and lights. Something that had elegance but could brighten up the room for the family. He was reveling in how much of a gentleman he was when something out of the corner of his eye made him jump at least several feet in the air.

He jerked his head toward whatever being had moved into his field of vision. It was a small, pre-pubescent boy with dark hair. Armand had no clue how the boy had moved into his presence without him knowing, but the likeness to Gordon Sr. made the boy unmistakable.

"Ah, you must be Gordon Jr.. Pleased to make your acquaintance," Armand said formally as he extended a hand. Gordon looked at the hand and then returned Armand's gaze. Armand became uncomfortable at the unwavering stare of the child. It seemed as if Gordon's eyes were boring into Armand's very being, outing his secrets and seeing who he really was. Armand dropped his hand.

Armand had never concerned himself with children before, his greatest reason being that he did not particularly care. But Armand had an unspoken fear of children. He didn't know how, he didn't know what it was, but they could sense things that grownups couldn't. They just knew things.

"And I wouldn't really call it fear…" Armand lied to himself in thought.

They were reckless, they couldn't be controlled. They were carefree, like a monster on a rampage. He also knew that they were innocents. They saw more, were more tuned in to things around them. Armand considered them dangerous. Also because he had no clue and no experience with them. But, he still would not admit that to himself.

Armand coughed uncomfortably. "So, Penny tells me you're good at cards…" Armand tried to make that sentence sound like it was leading to something, something that he hoped Gordon would add onto.

The child walked into the next room without a word.

"Ya," Armand heard from the adjacent space.

"Well, I'll just have to work with him. Nothing the Necromancer can't handle," he thought to himself. He followed the boy into the room, hoping Penny would soon appear and rescue him.

The conversation ensuing upstairs…

"Fine," Penny huffed. "I'll come with you, but what about Junior? Armand is probably here already so you may as well let me stay with the two of them." asked Penny, hoping her mom would let her stay.

"No, I'm sure we can find someone to watch him. He's almost old enough to watch himself anyway. You'll have to turn Armand away. Boyfriend or not, your duty as a witch takes priority. Head downstairs and tell him he has to go," P. said with finality.

Penny couldn't even huff, a look of crestfallenness come over her. Yes, she understood what her mother was saying. Yes, her mother was right. But, she could not help but be sad as she longed to just enjoy the normalcy of teenager-dom. "Okay," she resigned.

"Good girl," her mother said, kissing her on the forehead. "Head downstairs, I'll make some calls for Jun-Gordon."

Penny headed downstairs, but her disappointment disappeared when she saw Armand looking uncomfortable. Armand, always so sure of himself, so charming, was sitting on the same couch as Gordon but as far away from him as possible at the opposite end. Gordon was amusing himself with a comic book; Armand just sat there with his hands folded in his lap. She had never seen Armand look awkward before and was enjoying this moment of human weakness from him. She giggled to herself.

"Ah, Penny!" said Armand, not even trying to cover his relief, "I'm glad you're here. What say we get a game of cards going?"

Penny gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Armand, I'm really, really sorry, but some stuff has come up and I need to help out my mom today. We'll have to reschedule." She rested her arms on his chest. "I hate to turn you away like this, but my mom won't budge. And, she really does need help."

"What about me?" asked little Gordon, not taking his eyes off his comics.

"Mom is finding someone for you to stay with until we're done with work or dad gets home. Whichever comes first," replied Penny.

"No, she's not," came P.'s voice from around the corner. When she entered the room, the crew saw the look of stress on her face.

"What do you mean…?" asked Penny.

"No one-and I mean no one -is available." P. rubbed her forehead in distress.

"Mom, we can't take him to-we can't take him with us!" Penny said with alarm.

"I know, I know," P. said with annoyance.

Armand felt left out, and he didn't like it. "Where exactly can you not take him?" he inquired.

"We…we-"

"One of the restaurants is short-staffed, so we have to go in," Penny cut her mother off. "Technically no one under 21 is allowed, but I'm close enough."

P. added, "Yes, it's just not a good environment for him and we don't want him there," walking over to Junior. "No offense," she added with a little tussle of his hair.

"Mooooom," he whined, but not being able to help the giggle.

"Ugh, what are we going to do…" P. worried. Armand began to feel more awkward. Then P. got the look of an idea on her face and zeroed in on Armand. "Armand. Armand, Armand, I hate to do this to you but we need you. Would you mind staying here today and watching Gordon? He's not much trouble."

"You know I can hear you, right?" said Gordon.

"Mom!" exclaimed Penny, "We can't do that to him, we-"

"Oh, Armand, please, it would mean the world to us," P. pleaded.

Penny gave a relenting sigh. "Could you, hon?"

Armand shuffled awkwardly. If he had no agenda, he would probably have just said no. He, the Necromancer, babysit? Beneath him. Out of the question. But, he had a goal.

And Penny's eyes pleading with him…

"Of course, ya sure," he said, lacking enthusiasm but covered with a friendly smile.

"Oooooh!" squealed Penny, kissing him hard on the mouth, drawing an "eeeeew" out of little Gordon. "Thank you!" she cried.

"Yes, thank you so much, Armand. I owe you!" agreed P., "Now, let's get going, Penny, time is short!"

"Hey, don't mention it," Armand said blandly. He really didn't want them to mention it ever again.

They all said their goodbyes. P. told Gordon to behave himself, informed Armand where the food was, and gave some lunch suggestions before heading out the door.

"And probably for dinner, too," added the kids' mother. And with that, they were gone.

"Now what?" Armand asked himself. He looked at the kid and went over and resumed his awkward place on the couch. Gordon kept reading like Armand didn't even exist. "He'd act differently if he knew who I was," Armand thought with menace. But, he remembered he needed to stay on the family's good side. Letting this babysitting thing go awry would be very bad, he knew how the humans treasure their children. So no accidentally singeing the boy to a medium-rare crisp.

"So," started Armand, "you like comic books?"
"Ya," replied Gordon.

"Ah, that's cool…" Armand waited.

…

"This isn't going very well," thought Armand to himself. He was visibly grimacing now, but the kid wouldn't notice, he had his nose so far in the comic book. "Which one's your favorite?" he asked.

"I like The Flash and The Human Torch, but I like Captain America better, and my favorite is Superboy. But Wonderwoman is cool too, though." Armand noticed some life in the kid's voice, he had actually looked up. He thought he was about to have conversation with him, but the kid returned his gaze down to the comics.

"Don't let him go!" thought Armand excitedly. "Oh, so you like superheroes?" he prompted.

"Ya." Monotone and uninterested again.

"Why, seems kind of unrealistic, don't you think?"

Gordon looked up with a little hurt in his eyes, Armand actually felt badly for hurting the kid's feelings, but quickly pushed the feelings away.

"Ya, I guess. But it would be cool to be special. I'd like to have powers, too, so I could be important for once. These guys are lucky, but they don't even want to have powers I bet. The look at them as a burden. They should give them to me, I'd want them. No one ever overlooks Superboy," said Gordon, "he gets appreciated," he finished glumly.

Armand realized he had struck and chord and decided to back off. The kid was talking so quickly and insistently, Armand was afraid he was going to burst into tears. He could handle people begging for their lives, he didn't know what he'd do if some little kid started bawling though. But, he had got a glimpse into the boy's inner workings. Gordon obviously resented his mother and sister; they had gotten special powers, they got to go fight the "villains" of the world, and he was just a boy.

"They sound really exciting," he said. He didn't know how to continue, so he thought he would try being nice. "But, the normal people are important, too. If everyone was super, no one would be special. Who would be there to get the superheroes out of trouble if there were no normal people?"

Armand added in his thoughts: "And who would serve, who would be slaves?" He of course didn't add that part though. But he really did feel for the boy, and meant what he said to him.

Gordon looked at Armand, and, for the first time since Armand had seen him, smiled. Armand felt a warming, unfamiliar feeling as the boy gazed at him with appreciation. The boy went back to reading, but not with the cold shoulder he had before. Armand also smiled a little, and inconspicuously summoned a book as he settled back into the couch to read.