Disclaimer: I do not nor will I ever own any of characters depicted below that you may recognize...they belong to forces higher then me, and I respect them and applaud them for their beautiful creations.

Xander Frygor Odinson was well aware that if everything went according to plan, February 8th would go down in history as one of the best days of his life.

And yet, as nervous as he was to pop the question, he found he couldn't help but enjoy his time with JJ.

JJ was as freakishly busy as he'd always thought, but somehow she made time for the important things; for family dinners and study sessions and for Marco's performance group and to go to Xander, Max and Stephen's games, to babysit the twins when needed and to tutor Nikki in English and Luka in Math….and to go on dates with him.

9 dates, to be exact; bowling and mini golf and to the beach and to dinner, and to movies and for ice cream, and coffee, and this date; on February 8th, was date number ten.

The most important date of them all.

At least for now.

"So, I'm pretty sure that my all-time favorite was when you brought your truck over and we parked it in the backyard and brought out all those blankets and just watched the stars." JJ smiled softly, turning to pick at her cinnamon roll.

"I agree." Xander grinned. Then he grimaced. "At least until we accidentally fell asleep and I woke up seven hours later to your mom staring me down."

JJ choked. "What?" She blurt out, eyes wide.

Xander grinned. "Oh, I didn't tell you that part?" JJ shook her head wildly.

"It was terrifying." He admitted. "But all your mom did was glare at me for a good minute and then lean over and shake my hand."

"Maybe he was impressed that we'd hung out all night and we hadn't done anything…" JJ wiggled her eyebrows, and Xander flushed.

"It was embarrassing." He shook his head. "Worst impression ever."

"Aw, calm down." JJ sat down her fork to pat Xander's arm consolingly. "I'm pretty sure he approves."

"So…" Xander's brain screeched to a halt as he pulled an orange shoebox out from underneath the table, "If I did something crazy like this, he probably wouldn't kill me?"

JJ raised a brow at the box, and Xander held his breath as she pulled it toward her and took off the lid.

She smiled down at the contents and pulled out the black baseball hat.

"NYU?" She made a face. Then her eyes brightened. "Are you in?" Xander grinned and JJ squealed. "Oh my word Xan!" She leaned over to hug Xander tightly and his smile widened. "This is huge news!"

Xander nodded. "Best news is; they've given me a full scholarship."

JJ looked up from the baseball hat to smile warmly across the table. "Xan…this is huge."

He nodded. "I haven't told anyone else." He admitted. "I wanted you to be the first to know."

JJ's smile widened and she moved to put the hat on her head…then she paused.

"Is there any other significance with this hat?" She asked slowly, and Xander made a face.

"Well…it's yours." He admitted. "But….this is our tenth date."

JJ tried to hide a smile, and Xander's nerves grew. "And…." He hesitated, "its also been almost four months since we've started hanging out, and I really like you, and I was thinking maybe"

"Yes." JJ interrupted. Xander paused.

"Yes?" He repeated.

"If you're going to ask me to be your girlfriend…." JJ grinned. "Then my answer is yes."

Xander's face broke into a large smile, and he nodded. "That's where I was going." He admitted. "So…yes?"

"Yes." JJ said again, smile almost as big as his. "Over the past few months I've realized that when we stop arguing just for the sake of arguing, we actually get along really well, and we don't agree with everything but you're respectful of my opinion and we have a lot of fun and you're so funny and drop dead gorgeous…."

Xander dimpled. "Same." He said enthusiastically. "To all of it."

JJ shook her head. "There's a but."

Xander froze. "What?"

"But…." JJ dragged out, "I don't want to keep this a secret from everyone." Xander nodded immediately.

"I agree." He added. "I want everyone to know that we're together."

JJ nodded. "Good." She smiled. "There is another But though."

"TWO buts?" Xander wilted. The he straightened. "Alright. Hit me."

"It's just…you've met my mom and he approves, but my dad's a totally different story. A very….LONG story."

Xander winced, but he nodded. "Alright." He said again. "Hit me."

"Well…after I tell you this part you might change your mind about us because my dad is very," JJ made a face, "He's very protective and this is a delicate situation because of everything, and,"

"JJ." Xander reached out to grab onto JJ's hand. "I'm about one thousand percent positive that nothing you say is going to make me break up with you, so just…"

"Hit you?" JJ said dryly, and Xander grinned.

"Exactly."

"Alright." JJ took a deep breath. "Here goes."

"Wow." Xander said after JJ had finished speaking. She winced.

"So?" She asked.

"We definitely have to break up." Xander said after a moment. "You're way cooler than me, and I don't know if I can date someone SO much cooler than me."

"Please." JJ rolled her eyes. "I've always been cooler than you. This changes nothing."

Xander smiled "You're right. This changes nothing."

JJ smiled. Then she grimaced. "You realize what we have to do now?"

Xander raised a brow.

"Now we have to break the news to everyone."

Xander paled. "You're right…I forgot about that."

JJ winced. "It won't be that bad…right?"

"Of course not." Xander reassured unconvincingly.

"It'll be fun."

The Family

"Xander has a girlfriend."

Thor announced it immediately, face creased into worried lines.

Clint scoffed. "I'm not all that surprised." He admitted.

Thor shot Clint a look.

"Not to be weird, but your son isn't all that unattractive." Clint began. "And he's smart and athletic. No girl can resist that. Not even mine, probably." Clint sat up straight from where he'd been slumped on Steve's couch. "Wait. He's not dating mine, right?"

"Of course not." Thor shook his head. "That's Bruce's son."

Clint whirled on Bruce, who raised his hands in surrender.

"They like each other." He admitted. "But they're not dating as far as I know."

"Which isn't saying much." Steve spoke up. "Like our kids are going to tell us everything."

"True." Tony looked up from where he'd been dinking around on his phone. "Nikki built a robot out of the toaster for fun the other day and didn't tell anyone. It opened the door when Pep was taking a shower and totally flipped her out."

Steve snorted. "Sounds like your kid." He joked. Tony rolled his eyes.

"I know, right? Pepper made me take Nikki out for the day."

"Really?" Clint straightened. "How did that go?"

"Pretty good." He admitted. "We spent most of the day talking about her science project….which she's totally going to ace by the way."

"How is it that the daughters are the ones with the brains while our sons are out being stupid?" Steve muttered.

Thor made a sympathetic face. "You're son still being an idiot?"

Steve huffed. "I literally have no idea what's wrong with him." He groaned. "He has these new friends that he's hanging out with and they're…bullies."

"Everyone's a bully at some point in their high school career." Clint reasoned.

"Xander used to be a big bully." Bruce added. "Ben was telling me about how he went through this phase where he thought he was better than anyone else and he wasn't afraid to say so."

"When was this?" Thor asked, interested.

"Sophomore year." Bruce guessed.

"And what fixed him?" Steve asked. "Because he's not like that now."

"JJ." Bruce grinned. "Apparently she punched him in the face and told him that every time he was rude to somebody she'd punch him again."

Thor snorted. "Really?" He asked, and Bruce nodded.

"According to Bruce it only took two weeks, three split lips and six black eyes for Xander to check himself."

Steve nodded slowly. "So what you're telling me…is JJ needs to start beating up Aaron, and then he'll be fixed."

Bruce thought for a moment, then he smirked. "Pretty much."

"Well tell JJ to get on that then!" Tony patted Steve on the shoulder. "I'm tired of Marco griping about Aaron's bad attitude."

Steve sighed. "I think everyone's tired of it."

"So tell JJ to punch him in the face." Clint shrugged. "Easy."

"I don't know." Thor said slowly. "She might be too busy for that." He moved to the kitchen to take a phone call, and Steve shot the rest of the team a look.

"Does he know something we don't?" He asked slowly.

Clint shrugged. "Who knows?" Then he made a face.

"But actually, he probably does."

Dinner

"The gang's all together again!" Pepper smiled at Nicole and slid into the only empty chair. "Sorry I'm late."

"No worries." Nicole grinned. "We haven't even ordered yet, so you' re good."

"Hey Aunt Pepper!" Rhiannon leaned over to catch Pepper's attention. "How's the company?"

"The company is good." Pepper grinned. "How's Senior Year?"

"Senior year is AWESOME!" Max leaned over to butt in. "Which, by the way, have you met Brittany?"

A blond haired girl seated across from Max leaned over.

"Hey." She said. "I'm Brittany."

"Hi Brittany," Pepper greeted slowly. "Are you a friend of,"

"She's my girlfriend." Aaron leaned over next.

Pepper's eyes widened slightly. "Oh." She shot Nicole a meaningful look. "It's very nice to meet you, Brittany."

Brittany smiled tightly.

"Okay, no more talking over me please." JJ leaned forward, "I'm trying to convince these punks to join me for a 5K in a few weeks.

"Oh. Sorry." Pepper winked and sat back in her seat, send Jane and Nicole a look. "When did that happen?" She asked lightly.

"Right after we got back from the spa." Nicole shook her head. "She seems nice enough, but,"

"She kind of reminds me of the bullies that picked on me in high school." Jane admitted. "Nice on the outside but mean and hateful on the inside."

"I'm just worried that she's only dating him now because of his growth spurt."

"Is that what we're calling it now-a-days?" Tony snorted.

Steve rolled his eyes. "It's a valid concern." He admitted. "We'll just have to watch and see how the relationship progresses.

"Hey," Tony leaned towards Steve. "Have you asked you know who about doing you know what, to help with the…thing?"

The wives shared a confused look, but Steve, at the head of the table, shook his head. "Not yet."

"Get on that." Tony advised, and Steve rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, right."

"Hey, why didn't Xander bring his new girl?" Nicole asked Jane, and Jane grinned.

"Who says he didn't?" She asked cheekily, and Pepper and Nicole shared a confused look. Then they leaned over to see where Xander sat, engrossed in a conversation with Stephen and Max, who sat opposite him, and Ben who sat beside him. On his other side, chiming in every so often, sat JJ.

The wives shared a look.

"No!" Nicole gasped. "Them?!"

Jane smirked.

Pepper shook her head. "That's crazy!" She argued.

Jane shook her head. "I thought the same thing when I first found out. But if you think about it, it makes sense."

Pepper and Nicole furrowed their eyebrows, deep in thought. After a few minutes, their faces cleared, and they nodded.

"It makes SO much sense now." Nicole admitted. "How did you find out about this?"

"Believe it or not, Thor told me." Jane leaned forward.

"THOR knew?" Nicole shook her head. "Crazy."

"What are you guys even talking about?" Tony butt in. "Thor knows what?"

The women shared a look.

"Nothing." They said together. Tony turned to Steve and shrugged.

"Secrets." He shook his head sadly. "There's no getting away from them."

"Never." Steve agreed. "Though I'm sure we'll find out soon enough."

"I'm sure you'll be informed sooner rather than later." Jane promised.

Marco, seated two seats from Jane leaned over to say something, but just then the waiters appeared.

After the table had ordered, conversation resumed, and Marco, instead of turning back towards the women, looked a few chairs over, to where JJ sat, deep in discussion with the twin girls seated across from her.

"If it's okay with your parents, I'm sure I'd be able to do that." JJ nodded slowly. "When is it again?"

"When is what?" Xander shot his little sisters a look. "What do you want from her?"

"We were wondering if she could help with our English project." Becca, the oldest twin by two minutes, explained quickly.

"It's on the book Dante's Inferno." JJ shot a look towards Xander. He made a face.

"And your teacher let you choose that book?"

Jamie shrugged. "Not at first. But then Dad talked to her and she said it was fine."

Rhiannon overheard the conversation from a few seats down and turned to Sherlock. "You convinced the teacher to let the girls do a sixth grade book report on Dante's Inferno?"

Sherlock shrugged. "Why not? It's classic literature."

"We were gonna read that book in my English class," Max spoke up. "But the school board decided against it at last minute, because it wasn't appropriate reading for our age."

Sherlock snorted. "Shall I go and speak to the school board as well?"

"I will be the first to admit I don't know what book you're talking about." Ben smiled brightly. "Does this book have any pictures in it?"

Becca held up a finger and Jamie reached under the table to pull out a thick hardcover book. She handed it over to Ben, who grimaced at the sight of it.

"This book has NO pictures." Ben shook his head.

"It also has many mature themes throughout the entire thing." Rhiannon shook her head. "And MOM said this was ok?"

"Mom said what was okay?" Jane joined the conversation with a bright smile.

"Nothing." Becca, Jamie, and Sherlock answered quickly, all with innocent expressions on their faces.

Jane narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to question them, Jamie jumped up and raised her hand.

"What?" Jane asked slowly.

"Why are Xander and JJ holding hands under the table?" She blurt out, loud enough that it caught the whole tables attention.

Xander and JJ froze, all eyes on them.

Max jumped up and pointed a finger at them. "Hands in the air." He demanded. "Slowly."

After a long look at each other, Xander and JJ raised both hands…JJ's right hand and Xander's left still interlocked.

"What…." Marco stood with a smirk. "Is the meaning of this?"

"Yeah!" Stephen jumped up. "Do you have something to tell us?"

"Yeah!" Leila stood as well. Then her eyes widened. "Wait a second! Is THIS the guy you've been texting all the time?"

"And is this the chick you've been spending all your time with?" Ben crossed his arms.

"I disapprove." Clint spoke up. "Stop it NOW."

JJ rolled her eyes. "You can't tell me what to do." She retorted.

"Does your mother know about this?" Steve shook his head.

JJ huffed. "And if he doesn't?" She tried.

"Boyfriends are bad." Tony spoke up.

"No they are not." Bruce intervened. "JJ, how long has this been going on?"

"What does it matter?" Thor tried to help. "They're dating, so what?"

"Wait." Sif's eyes widened. She whirled towards JJ. "You are dating the son of Thor?" She turned towards Thor, and the two began laughing.

"Okay…" JJ spoke up after a moment. "It's not that funny."

"It's kind of funny." Xander whispered.

"Shh." She whispered back.

"It's not funny." Rhiannon agreed. "It's a shock."

"Not really." Sherlock agreed. "I've seen this coming since Sophomore year."

"You have not." Jane argued.

"This is just weird." Aaron blurted out.

"So weird." Brittany agreed with an eyeroll."

"Could you guys just be quiet for two seconds?" JJ burst out, and everyone went silent. "Sit." She demanded, and everyone sat.

"Xan and I have been dating since November," She admitted. "We didn't say anything to anyone because we didn't want to make a big deal out of this unless we were both serious."

"I asked Jay to be my girlfriend officially about a week ago." Xander picked up. "She said yes. We were waiting for a good time to tell everyone."

"Seems like that time is now." JJ finished. "Now can we please calm down?"

"You're right." Rhiannon nodded. "We'll calm down."

"It's a surprise." Leila admitted. "But the more I think about it the more I like the idea."

"Congrats guys!" Ben grinned. "You guys are dating! That's so cool!"

"I just can't believe you didn't say anything to us sooner." Clint muttered.

The teenagers shot Clint a weird look.

"Why would she tell you?" Marco asked slowly.

"You're the parent of one of her best friends." Ben added. "That's weird.

"Oh yeah." Clint shifted in his seat. "Duh."

JJ snickered. "Alright! Can we eat now?"

The table turned back to it's previous conversations, and JJ and Xander shot each other a warm look.

"Well that went better than I thought it would." Xander admitted lowly. JJ grinned.

"And now it's over. Mission accomplished." JJ turned slightly to face Aaron, who'd nudged her slightly.

"How could you do this?" He whispered harshly.

JJ furrowed her brows. "Do what?" She asked.

"Use Xander like that." Aaron shook his head. "That's low."

"Use..?" JJ looked confused. "You think I'm using him?"

"Of course I do." Aaron scoffed. "And that's horrible." JJ looked at Aaron with narrowed eyes, then she leaned forward.

"I am going to make an excuse to leave the table." She whispered harshly. "And you're going to find a reason to do the same…and we're going to talk about what you said….right now." Aaron opened his mouth, but at JJ's fierce look, shut it slowly. He nodded once. JJ forced a smile on her face and turned back to the rest of the table. After a few moments, her phone went off loudly.

"I'm sorry." She looked down at her phone with a grimace. "I'm doing a group project for English and I just have to check in with my partners. I'll be right back." She pushed out her chair and marched away. After a moment, Aaron stood too.

"I'm part of her group." He admitted in a stilted voice. "I should probably go check in too." He hurried after JJ, exiting through the emergency exit and appearing in a dark alley, where JJ waited, arms crossed.

"What the Hell, Aaron?"

Aaron and JJ part Two

"What the Hell, Aaron?" JJ snapped. "How dare you tell me that the only reason I'm dating Xan is because I'm using him?!"

"I don't see why you'd be dating him otherwise!" Aaron blurt out. "You've known each other for years and all of a sudden you want to date him? Right when I don't need you anymore, and now you no longer have an excuse to be part of the Supers?"

"Oh my Gods," JJ whirled around in anger. "Can you just forget the whole Supers thing for 30 seconds?!"

"How can I when it's all you think about?" Aaron yelled. "You latched onto me because I was weak and you thought you could exploit that, and now that I don't need you, you panicked and grabbed onto whoever you could so you wouldn't lose your precious prestige."

"Are you kidding me? I'm not just your friend, Aaron," JJ spat. "I'm friends with everyone in that room, and I could care less about whether or not my parents were Avengers or Superheroes or whatever. None of that matters! It's not important!"

"Of course it's important!" Aaron shook his head.

"No, it's really not." JJ shook her head. "You know what's more important than being a super? Being a good friend, and a loyal friend, and caring about other people and being nice, and literally, anything else."

"I get it JJ." Aaron crossed his arms. "For the longest time, Being a Super was the only thing that made me cool. I wasn't strong, or super-smart, or funny, or talented. But it was okay, because I was a Super and I had you. But now, I'm strong, and I have new friends, and a girlfriend, and being a super isn't my everything. But now, you're the only average one in the group, which I know can be scary. But using Xander to keep your place in the Supers, which is the only thing that makes you not average, is just wrong."

"Me?" JJ asked disbelievingly. "Average?" She laughed mockingly. "If only you knew…"

"Knew what?" Aaron asked slowly.

JJ opened her mouth, then she shook her head. "I'm not going to tell you." She finally said. "Because it doesn't matter. I don't need to be the coolest person in the room, because that's not important to me. You think I'm normal? Average? Good." JJ shrugged. "Because there's nothing wrong with that. Instead of being bitter about all the things I'm NOT, I'm going to be proud of my friends and all the things they can do. Aaron, comparison is the thief of joy."

Aaron shrugged at that.

"Not if you're better than everyone."

JJ's eyes widened, and she took a step back. A disbelieving laugh burst out, and she shook her head. "Forget this." She sighed, then looked up squarely at her former best friend. "I'm done with you Aaron. If that's what you think of me, after all these years of standing by your side and being your friend and protecting you when no one else would, if that's the kind of person you think I am, then I don't WANT to be your friend." She rubbed her face wearily.

"I really don't know what's gotten into you." She admitted. "But I find it a betrayal to hear that you'll believe the people who've been bullying you since Kindergarten out of pure jealousy over your best friend of fourteen years. And, also, I refuse to listen to you insult me, and call me a leech. If you're so worried about leeches, I'd be paying more attention to your new friends, who only befriended you after the serum took effect, then to push away your old ones."

JJ raised her hands with a chuckle. "But whatever, that's just me." She held up her phone. "So…I'm gonna go. Have a great rest of your evening."

Aaron crossed his arms as JJ walked away, a frown on his face.

He felt guilty. Why did he feel guilty? He only told JJ what Brittany and her friends have been telling him for weeks.

He shrugged.

JJ would think it over and realize he was right, and she'd get over herself.

And if she didn't? A small voice asked in the back of his head.

Aaron grunted.

If she didn't…then she wasn't really a good friend, was she?

Aaron pisses me off so bad...but I find a poetic justice in the fact that he isn't a carbon copy of his father, even if he looks like it. The Supers have plenty of issues now on their plate, and the Avengers are still dealing with the Cage, and JJ's stuck in the middle...what IS going to happen next?!

Next Chapter up Sunday...I PROMISE.