-EPILOGUE-
Three years later
"Uncle Victor, Uncle Victor!" Little feet went as fast they could go, surprisingly strong for someone so small and launching the body into the waiting arms of adoring feral.
"Hey, who's jumping on me?! Get off yah little rat, I'm looking for Evie!" Victor pretended to struggle while his three-year-old niece clambered up onto his shoulders, red tutu skirt and all.
"Uncle Victor it's me! I'm Evie!" She protested, even while he looked around the preschool classroom in exaggeration, sighing in phony frustration.
"Who said that? Evie? Where are you?" Well acquainted with her rough and tumble ways, his hands were waiting to catch the tiny child when she flipped over into his arms.
"I'm HERE Uncle Victor!" She insisted again, tugging on his shirt. He blinked in surprise, gaping down at her.
"Hey look, it's Evie! Where'd you come from little rat?!" She giggled and kissed his cheek, shaking one little finger at him scoldingly.
"I'm not a rat Uncle Victor. I'm a woofeerine. Like Daddy, member?" He shook his head, giving the pack kit a warm hug.
"Nope, you're a Cat like Uncle Victor. A sabretooth, remember?" He mock growled and she snarled back, going to tackle him again. The game was a familiar one to the pair, one that Jimmy was always bitching about and Little One rolled her eyes at but tolerated. Really, it was his little brother's fault. If he hadn't been so hard-headed over something small like Victor intentionally puncturing all four tires on his truck, Evie would never have seen them fighting and they wouldn't have had to explain it as playing.
As it was, that had become one of his niece's favorite games and as Victor was the fun uncle, he couldn't very well disappoint her could he? Especially on a special day like today, where little one had a project to finish for yet another one of her art shows and Jimmy had a mission with the do-gooders so he got to pick the pack's only kit up from preschool.
"Evie? We don't wrestle in class, remember?" A feminine voice from the side interrupted. An unfamiliar one at that, which meant little one's reminder to be nice to weather witch didn't apply.
He turned, keeping Evie at his side and half prepared to deliver something scathing and/or crude when his nose caught it.
Ours.
The instinct was an immediate one and thus all the more startling for it. His insides were magnetized, clenching and raising to be joined with the red-headed nymph just coming around the corner. She was holding the hand of another child, who thanked her for something or another and ran off.
"Sorry Miss Lola." Evie apologized, cuddling shyly against Victor for comfort. His feral was torn, comforting and patting the back of their little pack kit and eyes drinking up the slim milky skin of her teacher. She was in some kind of short dress, pale blue and green eyes smiling with open uncertainty at his penetrating stare.
"Thank you for apologizing Evie. I know you were very excited about your uncle coming today. Is this him? Can you introduce us?" Evie smiled proudly, happy to show off her new skills picked up in school.
"Um, I'm Evie. Dis is my Uncle Victor. He's getting me from school and we're gonna have a special lunch." She smiled hesitantly.
"I did it, huh Miss Lola?"
The young woman smiled serenely. She was probably in her twenties? Her hair looked like silk. Red sunshine silk, he could smell her lemon shampoo and the mint charcoal of her facewash, the simple cocoa butter lotion she'd rubbed into her body just that morning. It was unadorned, the same way she was but her cupid's bow lips were shiny, what did she put on them? Did it taste like anything? God, what was her taste-
He hadn't realized he'd started forward until she growled in warning and Evie yelped as he nearly dropped her.
"Sorry, princess. Uncle Victor was… distracted. You aren't the weather witch. Where's the weather witch?" He demanded. Miss Lola, to her credit, merely raised an eyebrow.
"Away on a mission, I often take her class when this occurs. Evie's mother told me her brother would be coming to pick up Evie a little early today?"
"That's me. I'm him." Internally he groaned, he sounded like Jimmy now.
Unluckily for him, it seemed this barely five-foot woman had the same sass as his sister in law to be. She eyed him, not with disgust but with a very firm no-nonsense set to her sumptuous mouth and passed over a tablet.
"I'll just need a retinal scan and a signature to sign Evie out."
He held it up, letting the device pass over and beep in confirmation of his identity and then accepted the stylus she offered after he put Evie down. Their hands touched as she did so and he captured her fingers in his, bringing them to his lips.
"Mr. Creed-"
"Call me Victor." His cat was coming out, wanting to lap at her and get a taste but he held back, instead brushing his lips over her knuckles. She inhaled sharply, licking her lips and he was ready to ask her out for dinner when Evie cut in.
"Uncle Victor I gotta go please."
"Okay princess just a second-"
She tugged again at his pant leg, shifting and dancing back and forth even while she tried to get her little bag on her back.
"Uncle Victor I gotta go. Please?" In the brief second, it took to assist her with the bag, the teacher had backed away to a safe distance.
"There's a bathroom just down the hall. I should get back to my class. Have a good day Evie." And she fled, leaving him snuffling like a pup and grumbling as he carried Evie off to her potty break.
"Ah'm home, anybody here?" Marie called out, setting her keys down in the basket by the door.
"Mama!" Evie charged in, the skirt of her dress up dress hiked up as high as her little arms could carry and plastic crown sliding into her eyes.
"Oh my, look at this! A princess in mah own home, ah had no idea!" Marie curtsied to her daughter, grinning when Evie did the same as grandly as she could manage in a dress several sizes too big and strands of white falling out of her ponytail into her face.
"I'm princess Evie. Would you like to have some tea Queen mama?" Marie nodded solemnly, setting her things down and shrugging out of her jacket, hanging it up.
"Ah would love some tea, please lead the way." Still traipsing elegantly, Evie picked her skirt up again and returned to the playroom just off the living room, where her very disgruntled Uncle and Father sat on too small stools. Both were in hats clearly chosen by the little girl, Logan's with a wide floppy brim and Victor in a yellow crown sporting beauty and the beast sticker. Their large hands dwarfed the cups of the child's tea set and she shook her head vehemently when Victor reached for a plastic scone.
"No Uncle Victor, we gotta wait!" Marie very politely did her best not to laugh at the older feral's scowl in response.
"Oh good darlin', you're home. I've gotta do some work on the truck to do-" Logan was rising, with Victor eagerly offering to help before Evie shook her head again.
"No, we gotta have tea Daddy! You promised. You too Uncle Victor!" When Marie tilted her head in question, Logan sighed.
"It was this or Elmo." He admitted.
"Mother fuc-" Victor began but paused at Marie's glance in warning. "Freaking Elmo Little one." Marie stifled another laugh at the Brother's long-suffering sighs and took the seat offered by her daughter.
"Now we could ALL play!" Evie, oblivious to the irritation, continued to rummage in her trunk of dress-up clothes before grabbing another crown and coming back to place it gently atop her mother's head.
"Okay. Mama, you could be da Queen and I'm da princess and Daddy and Uncle Victor is my friends at da tea party." Taking all the extreme care a little girl could possibly manage, she very gently used a pair of small tongs to put a plastic baked good on everyone's plate.
"Okay, now we have tea and talk. Mama, was your day nice?" She asked, sipping from her cup with an exaggerated slurp and dabbing at her mouth with a linen.
"Nice enough lamb. Mama had some wedding things tah do, all by herself." She shot a look at her fiance who had the decency to look sheepish.
"Um, I could help I bet. Could we look at more dresses again with Auntie Jubes?" Evie asked, pouring tea for Marie.
"Ah have mah dress sweet girl, remember? We went tah try it on when we got yah pretty dress fah the wedding?" Marie reminded her. She nodded wisely. "Now, did yah have a good day with Uncle Victor?" Genevieve nodded eagerly.
"We got a special lunch and got ice cream too!" Marie's evil eye was turned on her packmate then, who smiled back unashamedly.
"Oh, ice cream before dinner? That is special. Yah had fun?" Evie nodded happily.
"And Miss Lola growled at him and it was funny but I hadda use da- THE-" She hesitated and whispered, "ladies room. So we could go after." Logan perked up at that, always interested in his brother's potential embarrassment.
"How come she growled at him little skunk?" Evie pretended to munch a muffin while Victor squirmed.
"Cause he got so close SO fast! And he kissed her hand too!" Her little nose wrinkled in disgusted delight. "Is he gonna marry Miss Lola cause he kissed her like you kiss Mama?"
Both adults were too busy staring in shock at Victor's apparent interest in their daughter's substitute interest to reply. Meanwhile, he was very determined in using the fake butter on an even faker scone.
"Ah don't know lamb," Marie answered honestly.
"Vic? You gonna marry Miss Lola?" Logan asked with a smirk.
"No. She caught me unawares, that's all-"
"And he was sniffing a lot too! Member Uncle Victor? You kept trying to sniff her." Evie giggled at the memory. "It was so funny." Logan was outright grinning now and even Marie was beginning to grow suspicious of the encounter.
"Oh yeah? What else did Uncle Victor do?" Logan prodded.
"Hey Evie, can you pour me more of this delicious tea?" He asked in a desperate bid for distraction. Unfortunately, little Genevieve Howlett had learned how to multi-task from her mother and was very, very good at it.
She rose, pretending to pour with the teapot and talking all the while.
"He sniffed a lot and kept staring at her! And he growled at her too. Not nice Uncle Victor, you gotta be nice." She scolded.
"Yeah Uncle Victor gotta be nice." Logan teased, snickering. He glared hard enough to kill and then smiled suddenly.
"You're right Evie, I should be nice. Should Daddy be nice too and help Mama more with the wedding?" Evie nodded happily while Marie gave Logan a glare of her own and nodded in agreement.
"Yah right Evie, Daddy SHOULD help meh with our wedding-"
"I was on a mission darling-"
"Should daddy stop going on missions to get more of that Belgium icecream the professor likes Evie?" Victor continued gleefully, all but purring in delight when Marie's mouth dropped and his little brother began to stammer excuses.
"Yah told meh The Professor sent yah special!"
"He did-"
"He volunteered." Victor offered. Marie's eyes narrowed, looking as threatening as a person can with a pink play crown on.
"Marie, it was just one meeting with the tailor and I don't even like the monkey suit-"
"Hey sugah, why don't we go make some real tea before supper? Evie can yah play with Uncle Victor please?" She rose, eyes screaming for Logan to follow while Logan groaned followed her out.
"Okay Mama. Would you like some more tea Uncle Victor?" She offered the teapot with a sunny smile and he smiled back.
"I would love some Tiny, thank you." She poured it and they sipped in peaceful silence. His feral ears were just able to pick up a low argument between the engaged couple and it was beautiful to be out of the hot seat.
"Do you like Miss Lola Uncle Victor?" Evie asked suddenly.
"What makes you ask that?" Was his reply. She considered, tapping her lip in thought. Just like her mother. He briefly wondered what quirks a child of his would have. He'd been thinking about things like that more often lately….
"Daddy watches mama a lot. And sniffs. And gives her kisses." She answered seriously. He pretended to sip and all but rolled his eyes at the cooing and murmurs his hearing caught. Apparently making up was now occurring. As irritating as it was.. They were right for each other. The flame never burned hot enough to do lasting damage. He'd never had something like those two did.
"Maybe I do. I think I do." He admitted. She smiled.
"You should say come to the wedding! And then she could have cake and have a party too." She smiled adorably, nose scrunching like Marie's and grin with the same rakish charm as Jimmy. A perfect mix of the two people he loved the most in this world.
He looked over. His imaginations mused a redheaded child with gray eyes in the recently vacated seat by her cousin. A little cupid's bow mouth smiled at him and he smiled back.
"Maybe I will."
-Fin-