"Uh, yeah, that's okay..." Clarissa was NOT coming. Remy put down his phone for a moment. Armand Landry may be theoretically okay with him spending time with his daughter, but right now, no.

He "can't currently afford the... difficulties... that would come with being associated with Remy LeBeau, the alleged murderer."

"Non, really it's alright..."

"But I still wish you well, Remy, and hope that you will be able to restore your name." The man on the other side of the conversation added. Remy had a faint feeling that the other was just trying to avoid burning bridges.

"Mercí, Armand, really, uh... bye." Remy ended the call and sighed. By the way people were treating him, one might think he had killed someone important. And the worst thing was, they actually believed he had. In any case, he was confident the Lapin family would stand by him.

He stood up from his bed and looked at himself in the mirror. He looked fine. Like a normal teen going out to meet his girlfriend, if your definition of normal included red, glowing eyes. He tried to imagine himself with normal eyes, but he just couldn't see himself with brown or blue eyes. He shook his head, chuckled and made his way to the Lapin family's home.

The LeBeaus and the Lapins were related by marriage. Jean-Luc's older sister, Angélique LeBeau, had married Faustin Lapin over seventy years ago, and by some god sent miracle their marriage was a happy one up until three years ago, when Faustin was killed by a Tokyoite Assassin, while helping the local Thieves Guild get rid of the Assassins once and for all. Unfortunately the Guildmaster who had requested the New Orleans' Guild help in the first place was killed too and the Lapins and all the other families whose members had died for the peace in Tokyo had received next to no recognition or recompensation. Jean-Luc had almost declared war on the Tokyo Guild, but was stopped by his council reminding him of the new Guidmaster being young and inexperienced. Jean-Luc hadn't ever quite let go of that grudge.

Soon after Faustin's death Angélique had taken over as matriarch of the Lapin clan. Just as Mercy LeBeau had proven to the Guild that a woman could be a Thief, Angélique had proven that she could be the head of a clan. She did have a lot of experience managing messy situations, having had seven children. Emil, Remy's best friend was the fifth, and one of six sons.

As the mutant teen walked up to the Lapin's porch, the door was already ripped open by little Tav. The eleven-year-old was the second youngest of the Lapin brood, and the only girl.

"Rem! I saw you! I reached the door before you could! Are you coming to visit? Can you play with me? Come, please! I have something to show you!" She was also like the energizer bunny, never running out of energy, especially when it came to talking.

"Tav, let the poor boy get past the doorway before you bombard him with questions!" That was Tante Angélique. The century old woman's voice was loud and strong. It didn't have reason to be anything else. Though usually non-thieving Guildmembers didn't have access to the Elixir of Life, she was a member of the leading clan and the Guildmaster's sister, so an exception was made for her.

"*Mercí, Tante.*" He entered and looked around. "Where is everyone?"

"Your brother called the boys, some meeting going on, I heard.", then she smirked and added, "Men-Talk. No women or children allowed, and all'o'that." She chuckled and shook her head. Tav, having planted herself on a nearby loveseat, added her own opinion in the form of an annoyed huff.

"Emil too?" Remy asked. If his friend were invited, it would not only mess up his plans of going into town, it would also be more than a bit insulting that Henri hadn't also called Remy.

"*Non*, he's upstairs, listening to obnoxious music. Satan worship, I'm telling you. You want to whisk him away somewhere?" She looked hopeful. Parents seemed to always loathe their children's favorite pastimes, even if there only was one generation between them. The Thieves's near immortality made that phenomenon even worse.

"Uh, yes, I wanted to go into town, maybe grab some ice cream?"

"Wonderful!" She clearly approved of an ice cream. She probably would have approved of anything that distracted her son from 'that obscene garbage'.

"So, you just dragged me here as an alibi?" Emil was eating an ice cream and toying around with his hoodie.

"I really, really need to meet up with Bella. Please? I need to, really." Remy was doing a pretty solid puppydog impression. He went all-in with pouting, and head tilt. Emil couldn't help but agree.

"Please don't tell anybody about it?"

"Of course I won't."

"Yay! *Merci*, Emil. You're the best!" Rem looked like he might have given Emil a crushing hug, if they weren't both holding ice cream cones.

Suddenly he felt like some kind of haze was lifting itself from his head. Emil rubbed his eyes and tried to remember what that feeling meant.

"Why did you charm me?!" He whispered angrily.

Remy looked shocked.

"Shi- Sorry. I didn't notice. Sorry." Puppydog eyes. Again. But this time there was no haze.

Emil exhaled.

"You know I don't always have control. Sometimes it just slips out..."

"You and your mutant powers, Rem." Emil shook his head "You're a disaster just waiting to happen."

"Yeah, I know. Believe me, I know." He smiled self-deprecatingly "But you're still okay with it, right?" He pleaded.

"Yeah, It's still fine. Just, don't manipulate me, 'kay?" Remy was Emil's best friend, but moments like these made him distrust his own decisions and even understand some of the arguments those people on the TV made about mutants being dangerous.

"I don't do it on purpose..."

Emil decided that from here, the conversation would go probably nowhere. -Time for a change in topic- he thought.

"Where did you plan to meet up with Bella, anyways?"

Remy definitely didn't mind the switch. "Behind the tailors shop, the one that sells those frilly dresses."

Emil looked around and pointed at said shop, which they had passed a few minutes ago. "That one?"

Remy checked the shop, looked at his wristwatch. "F-, I have to hurry! Bye see ya later, thanks again." Remy pressed his ice cream cone into Emil's hand and ran off.

Emil briefly wanted to yell at Remy to take it back, then remembered that it was ice cream, and reconsidered. -His loss.- He shrugged and started looking for a place to eat in peace.

A/N:

I managed to upload the chapter on the day I was planning to do so! It probably isn't all that good a reason to be proud of myself, but I still am. Hopefully the next chapter will be up next Sunday.