Chapter 6 - Ah, L'Amore

Elin and Chance had just wrapped up a session with their family therapist, and it had gone well enough that they were both in relatively good moods and looking for something to do rather than immediately going back home. Chloe was babysitting, and she'd heavily suggested that she would be fine if they were back late. She practically had to fight Annie and Charlie off with a stick to get her turn babysitting, so she felt like she didn't get any Aunt Chloe time.

As for the therapy itself… they hadn't needed Charlie to intervene, but in an odd way, it had given them a good reason to work even harder than they already were — if for no other reason than that they were sick of other people trying to "help."

Still, they were holding hands as they went out to eat, and they got a booth so they could stay seated close to each other. They didn't even say anything at first as they went over the food options, letting their physical closeness speak for itself.

There wasn't some switch either of them could pull, but Elin seemed to be doing better now that she was going to team practices again, and Chance was working on some things the therapist had suggested, little mental exercises to put the brakes on his pattern of self-blame that was making it harder for Elin to pull herself out of her own problems when she felt like she had to hold him up so often.

Chance glanced over at Elin as she was looking over the menu and then, with a smile, leaned over to kiss her cheek without a word said.

Elin raised her eyebrows and turned his way, then smiled when she saw him grinning. "You trying to start something?" she teased.

"Not in public," he shot back, resting his chin on her shoulder. "Not yet, anyway."

"Nice. Restraint," Elin teased, leaning into him with an easy smile.

Chance grinned and kissed the top of her head. This … this was nice. This was a lot more like how it had been back when they were dating. This felt healthier.

They were going to be fine.

The art exhibit had been over for a while now; most everyone that had come was simply wining and dining, but Kari was pacing. This time, the exhibit was in New York, which meant that Westchester was in her reach for teleporting. And knowing that, she had suggested to Lucas that he could see her home.

It hadn't been something she'd really thought about. It just sort of… tumbled out of her mouth before she could censor herself properly. But Lucas had loved the idea enough that Kari decided to run with it. After all, they'd been all over Europe lately. Together.

"You're going to wear a hole in the floor the way you're going," Lucas said, coming up behind her to wrap his arms around her with an easy smile.

She shook her head and turned around to face him. He'd cut his hair since Amsterdam, which she hadn't asked him to do, but she was glad he did; she just knew somehow that James would tease her about having an art student boyfriend with long hair otherwise.

Besides, this way, she had an unobstructed view of deep hazel eyes that glittered when he laughed.

She might possibly be a little bit in love, she reflected as she looked up to meet Lucas' gaze and then let him sweep her up into a kiss.

When he let her go, he was grinning. "Are you really that worried I'll make a bad impression?" he teased. "Should I do something more stereotypical? I could dress in a red-striped shirt and bring a joint…"

She let out a gasp of a laugh before she shook her head and pulled him into a kiss. "You're going to prove my best friend right, and then I'll never forgive you," she said, though she hadn't moved far from him at all.

"Well, maybe your best friend should have more faith in you," Lucas pointed out. "You have exquisite taste in all things — why not men too?"

"I haven't had a great track record," she admitted.

"And then you met me," he said, smirking hard. "How lucky for you."

"You're full of it, you know that?" she said, shaking her head at him with a little smile.

He returned the smile and pulled her tighter. "Full of what, Kari? You should be specific if you're going to accuse me of things."

"You know what I meant," she said.

"Yes, but it's fun to mess with you," Lucas said. "You turn a lovely purple shade."

"Oh, I see. If you wanted to date a purple elfling, then you're several years too late," she said.

He chuckled at that. "No, no. I like blue far more," he said and kissed her. "With just the slightest hint of purple. As a highlight."

"Are you going to be this ridiculous around my family?" Kari asked, her tail betraying how entertained she was even though she was trying to look severe.

"Probably," he said. "And why shouldn't I be? You're my girl; I've got a right to make you blush."

"Oh yeah, my dad is going to have a problem with you," she said.

"Then it's a good thing that I have the powers I do," he said with a smirk, and she gasped and giggled when he suddenly turned to metal and his grip was so much colder.

"Oh, but now I'm going to blame you if my father breaks his hand on you," she warned. "And then he'll just bring in his best friend."

"That is worrisome," Lucas said, his eyebrows raised. "Any tips for how to avoid grave bodily injury?"

"Don't do anything that would make any of them want to hit you?"

"Ah, but I plan to hold my beautiful woman close no matter who's around to see it," Lucas said.

"Then I hope you're ready for the consequences," Kari said, shaking her head.

"I've been trying to tell you," Lucas said before he leaned in to steal a long kiss, "I'm ready to see your home. You're the one worrying and pacing unnecessarily."

Kari let out a breath, but she had to admit that there was nothing more she could do except to take the bull by the horns and go. So, she wrapped him up in one more kiss and simply teleported off to Westchester on the front doorstep. After all, they might as well come in the right way.

When they teleported, the kiss broke, and Lucas held onto her shoulders for a moment, looking sort of green. "How do you do this all the time?" he asked in a breath. "It's sickening!"

Kari winced in sympathy as she held him up at the elbows. "Are you alright? I know it can be hard on some people..."

He straightened up quickly and shook his head. "I'm fine; I don't need to be babied."

"Are you sure?"

He waved her off, gathered his breath, and then offered her his arm. "Well. Now. Introduce me to your family, love."

Kari smiled at that as she led him through the door, though they hadn't gotten far before there was a poof of maroon, and Kade appeared in the hallway, grinned at the two of them, and teleported over to wrap Kari in a hug. "Ooh, you brought target practice!" he declared with an impish grin.

"Kade," she said in a tired tone that wasn't really tired, since she couldn't quite help but laugh at him.

But Kade just grinned even wider as he turned toward Lucas and very obviously looked him up and down. "You're, what, five foot nine?"

"Five foot ten," Lucas corrected him with a small frown.

"Oh, of course," Kade said, though that had him smiling more wickedly.

"Kade," Kari said, this time in a slightly more warning tone.

"Oh, come on, Kari. I won't do anything permanent," Kade said, and before either of them could react any further, he simply disappeared in a poof of purplish-maroon, complete with a giggle that, when he was younger, would have sounded just like the bamfs.

Kari let out all her breath and turned toward Lucas, holding onto his arm and doing her best to look as apologetic as possible. "I'm really sorry about him," she said. "Out of all of us, he's the truest to the impish side of the family."

Lucas shook his head, though his gaze was toward the hall. "I suppose you did warn me," he said, then turned back to Kari and pulled her tightly. "Of course, you're above that sort of thing. Far more dignified," he said, and then kissed her.

She shook her head but kissed him back all the same. "We've all got it; it has to come out sometime," she said, smiling to herself at the family joke.

Lucas pulled her a little tighter and kissed her. "There's a time and place for that, love."

Kari hit him lightly in the shoulder before she led him down the hall. She had planned to give him the usual tour of things, but the bamfs seemed to be of the same mind as Kade — she wouldn't put it past them to be in cahoots — and kept showing up to try and trip them up with little giggles the whole time.

"You little demons," Kari said when she had barely teleported herself and Lucas out of the way of a childish trap of a bucket of water on the door. She only had enough of a warning to get them out when she saw the string, but she was still frustrated. "Can't we go five steps without you trying to interfere?"

One of the bamfs chattered back at her, not looking the least bit apologetic, but that just had Kari putting her hands on her hips with her eyes narrowed.

"Oh no," she said. "You aren't going to lie to me and get away with it."

When the little guy stuck out his tongue at her and then disappeared, Kari was still shaking his head as Lucas leaned in to raise an eyebrow at her where she could see his expression. "How is it that you're able to understand them?" he asked. "Is it a genetic trait?"

Kari shook her head lightly. "No, you'll probably be able to understand them once you've been around them for a while," she said. "You have to want it, and they have to want you to understand them in return."

Lucas frowned slightly as he thought it over, then nodded slowly. "Then they don't want me to understand them."

"You're new," she said, shaking her head. "It took my mother a while to get used to talking to them and understanding them. It's fine."

Lucas didn't entirely look convinced, though at the very least, the bamfs didn't try to pull anything else while they finished out the very basic tour and ended at the living room, which was where she knew her family would be. About this time of day, the littlest ones would be getting worn out and watching a show to wind down.

Sure enough, when they arrived, Krissy was sprawled out on the couch watching Sying with both Ariel and Chelsea sitting on top of him, which was clearly the little bitty twins' favorite thing to watch, because they would absolutely break down giggling whenever Sying would 'roar'.

"Kari!" Chelsea called out happily and rushed over to hug her big sister around the legs. "You've been gone for forever!"

Kari smiled as she crouched down to ruffle Chelsea's hair. "I wasn't gone that long."

Chelsea put her hands on her hips. "Yes, you were. You shouldn't lie."

Kari couldn't help but laugh at that. "Oh, okay. I didn't realize I was in so much trouble."

"Well, you are," Chelsea said. "Because you missed it when I fell at the pool and I knocked my tooth out, see?" She showed her big sister the gap in her teeth where, in fact, there was a tooth missing.

"Did you put it out for the tooth fairy?" Kari asked.

Chelsea nodded seriously. "Mmhmm. I wrote her a note saying I was sorry it was busted up, and she left me a note back!"

"She did?" Kari asked, her eyebrows raised.

"Uh-huh!" Chelsea said, looking around herself for the note before she let out a dismayed gasp. "Oh no! I left it in the kitchen! I was showing James's pretty friend!"

"That's alright," Kari promised. "We'll get it for you."

James was in the kitchen with his newest steady date — though they'd been pretty quiet about what they'd been up to until very recently, when the rest of the inventors at SI started to realize what Cleo was up to. Kari had lucked out in her arrival, too; Joulie wanted to cook dinner for whoever wanted to try out her family's version of a creole shrimp dish alongside her version of jambalaya.

It had taken a little bit of sweet talking to get Annie to agree to let a guest cook for her, but when Joulie seemed to know her way around — and her accent got thicker the more she and Annie chatted — all was more or less well in the kitchen. And James was highly entertained with how hard that had been to do.

The two of them were teasing back and forth as James cut up the vegetables for her — under strict supervision that included a whole lot of flirting and stolen kisses. "Wait until Remy gets in here," James laughed. "He's probably going to never ever let it die that I brought home someone from New Orleans that can cook better than him."

Joulie laughed at that, though she didn't get to respond before the door opened and Kari and her new boyfriend poked their heads inside. "Has anyone in here seen my sister's tooth fairy note?" Kari called out. "She's very upset about losing it."

"No," James called out. "But I can take a look. Can you describe the note in question? Loopy handwriting — or is it littered with umlauts?"

"I have no idea, but I'm sure it was highly decorative," Kari laughed.

"Welcome home," James said with a little smirk. "Still fighting the contact buzz?"

"Fighting the bamfs, more like," Kari said. "Kade is ringleading. Again."

James nodded. "Come on in. Joulie has offered to whip up dinner tonight — and she managed to get Annie to agree."

"Oh, are you dating some kind of telepath who can make Annie loosen her grip on things?" Kari teased, though she was smiling warmly Joulie's way.

"I think it might be voodoo," James laughed, which only got Joulie to smack him in the arm with a look.

"I asked nicely; no voodoo involved right now," she said, shaking her head before she stopped what she was doing to come over and introduce herself. "This one has no manners. Mo non se Joulie Petit-D'Or; you must be Kari. "

Kari smiled at her. "That's me. It's alright. I've known him since we were babies. He's always been like that," she said before she waved a hand in Lucas' direction. "This is Lucas, by the way. Lucas, this is my best friend and his girlfriend."

Lucas looked a bit taken aback by James before he seemed to nod and then put his hand forward to shake James'. "A pleasure to meet you, I'm sure."

"We'll see," James replied with a little smirk as he took Lucas' hand. "How long have you two been stateside?"

"Not very long," Lucas said. "Kari's tour stopped in New York, but we are going to Washington in a few days, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of the States."

"You should stop in to New Orleans," Joulie said. "It's the best city in the whole country."

"Biased," James said with a little wave.

"We should stop in anyway, just for the food and the experience," Kari said with a smile.

"We will see what happens," Lucas said with a shrug.

"Where are you from anyhow?" Joulie asked as she went back to her pot that was simmering away. "Maybe it's best you don't go to New Orleans if you don't have the right tastes. Wrong place, you won't make it out intact."

"Pretty sure she just said you can't take it," James said before he hopped up to sit on the counter.

Lucas frowned James' way before he turned back to Joulie. "I grew up in Belgium, but my mother is French."

She tipped her head up and nodded slowly. "Well, if you can't take what I'm making tonight, you best steer clear of New Orleans."

"No," James said, chuckling to himself. "She definitely said you can't take it."

"Oh, leave him alone," Kari said with a laugh, though Lucas shook his head at her.

"I don't need help," he said, which had James' crooked smirk stretching into a purely troublemaking smile.

Kari leveled a finger James' way. "No, really. Don't start," she warned him. "I'm just now introducing him to my family."

James flat out grinned at her, raising one eyebrow. "No?"

"I'm serious."

"What could I possibly do?" James asked, resting one hand over his heart as Joulie started to giggle.

Kari rolled her eyes at him. "Just leave it, please. For me?"

"Well. For you. Fine," James said, doing a fine job of looking incredibly put out. "For now."

Kari let out a sigh and leaned her head on Lucas' shoulder. "That's about as good as it's going to get, sadly."

"I can handle myself, love," Lucas said and kissed her forehead. "Don't worry needlessly."

James leaned closer to Joulie and couldn't help but mutter quietly, "Doesn't mean that someone else can't pick, though." He slipped off the counter and stole a quick kiss. "I'll be right back." James slipped by Kari and Lucas, without more than a quiet 'excuse me,' and turned sharply to head down the direction they'd just come from.

Kari shook her head before she turned her attention back to Lucas and slid her arms around his waist. "Why don't we head back and let the Southerners have the run of the kitchen?"

Lucas frowned a bit, though when he saw Joulie setting to work, he let Kari show him back to the living room. After all, the whole point was to see her home and her family, and by that time, Kate and Kurt were there as well. James was whispering to Kate with a look of pure trouble on his face, and Kate kept shoving him in the shoulder. Kurt, meanwhile, had the two littlest Summerses on either knee, laughing hard at Matthew's attempts at a growl.

But Ariel eventually broke up the back and forth teasing between Kate and James by all but wedging herself between them. "Momma says your girlfriend is gonna make dinner, and I wanna see!"

"She's almost done," James said before he scooped her up and tossed her in the air, just shy of touching the ceiling. "Do you think she needs your help?"

"Uh-huh!" Ariel said. "I'm really good at helping!" She wrapped herself around James' arm, knowing that his next move was to let his arm hang so she was entirely upside down.

"Let's see how good you are, then," James told her, though before he left with her, he made sure to look right at Matthew and give him a nice, low growl that had the little guy screwing up his face to try and copy it.

"He's really, really close," Ariel told him in an earnest whisper. "He's trying really, really hard!"

"He is," James agreed. "And he'll get it. But I'll bet that Liliana can do it first."

Ariel giggled. "Uh-huh, because girls rule!"

"Sometimes," James said before he managed to tickle her enough to get her to let go so he could toss her again on the way out.

Kari couldn't help but grin as she watched the whole interaction before Kate cleared her throat and got her attention with a little, "Aren't you going to introduce us, Kari?"

Kari straightened up a bit and turned toward her parents, taking Lucas' arm again, though he was the one to put his hand forward. "Lucas Maes."

"Kurt Wagner," Kurt said. "It's good to put a face with the name."

"Tell us about yourself, Lucas," Kate said, indicating a spot for the little couple to sit down together. "Kari has sent us a few pictures of the art travels, but we don't know much other than that you make my daughter smile."

"And that in itself is a point in my favor, I hope," Lucas said.

"Obviously," Kate said.

Lucas smirked at that before he simply leaned forward and told the two of them what he could about himself. How his parents had met at an art show and had instilled a love of painting in him at a young age. How he had grown up in Belgium but had lived in several places in the past few years traveling with his art. How he had met Kari when they were both at an art exhibit and had been impressed with her art before he even met her in person — and had then been impressed with her modesty and her beauty. Which, of course, had Kari blushing solidly.

By the time dinner came around, Kurt was in deep conversation with Lucas in German, impressed by the number of languages he knew as they chatted about the best places to visit in Germany and Kurt gave him his own opinions on hidden away gems.

Kari looked a lot more relaxed now that Lucas and her dad were getting along. But she couldn't help but shoot James a dirty look when she noticed him and Elin looking their way and not even pretending they weren't snarking about them.

Oh, lay off, she signed James way. I like him, okay?

I'm not doing anything, James signed right back.

Don't lie to me.

Talking to my sister.

Kari rolled her eyes at that. About him. Can't you please be nice?

About many things, and I am being nice. I'm not picking on him. Am I? James gave her a little look, as if to emphasize his point.

I want you to give him a chance, Kari said. Please. I like him a lot.

I'm in a good mood and enjoying introducing my own date to the group too, okay?

And that shouldn't include tearing my date down. Come on.

It's not about him. I promise I'll fill you in later, but we're not. Really. James did his best to look perfectly sincere, but he didn't get much of a chance for that when Remy made his way over and clapped a hand down on James' shoulder with a crooked grin. "Here we go," James breathed out. "Hi, Rem."

But Remy was just smiling down at him with trouble dancing in his eyes. "When you start up wit' the pretty lil' creole girl?" Remy asked. "An' I know she ain't no cajun, cause dat don' smell like nuttin' cajun to me."

"Yeah, well … had to move up the ladder a little," James teased right back, which really just kicked it off between the two of them. Joulie laughed and joined in, though she and Remy shooting their own dialect of butchered French back and forth was impressive enough that Remy's longtime girlfriend, Marie, looked as if she might get a headache if it were to continue.

Of course, it was all cut short as dinner started properly, and even Remy had to sit back and enjoy it even though the jambalaya she'd made to go with the creole shrimp was an entirely different taste than what he always made. For one thing, it was a lot hotter, loaded up with scotch bonnet peppers instead of just sweet greens.

Which was clearly exactly what Krissy had wanted, even if a few people like Lucas were drinking plenty to try to keep up with the hot taste. But Krissy? She just grinned over at Joulie. "I was totally craving something spicy."

Joulie smiled back at her. "Plenty more spice where that came from, my friend."

"My gramma says that Mommy's having a boy because she just wants spicy things all the time, but my grampa says it's a girl because of sugar 'n' spice 'n' everything nice!" Ariel giggled delightedly.

Joulie rested her chin on her fists as she watched the little one talk. "No way to know yet, Tifi. I know my mama said all she wanted was spicy and hot when she was waitin' on me."

"Mommy wanted ice cream with me," Ariel said. "She said she had mint stuff allll the time!"

Joulie reached out and barely tapped the end of Ariel's nose. "And you are one cool customer, sweet little one."

She giggled. "No, I'm a princess and an angel!"

"And very, very cool," she added with a grin.

Ariel giggled. "Uh-huh. That too."

Annie couldn't help but smile at the interaction as she leaned forward a bit. "So, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself, Joulie?" she asked. "We know you're a lovely cook…"

"Whatchoo wanna know?" she said in a rush, then smiled broadly, getting a grin out of Remy. "Grew up in New Orleans, went to school to show off how smart I am, now I'm just workin' at the Stark place while I finish up my masters. Not bad, I don't think."

"And what is it that you're studyin'?" Annie asked.

"Physics," she said with a shrug. "I like to learn about the universe."

"Oh, that's a lovely sentiment," Annie said with a smile.

"It's her way of trying to figure out her abilities," James put in. "Pretty slick, honestly."

"Oh?" Annie turned toward her with a smile.

Joulie shot James as harsh a look as she was able while simultaneously grinning with a light blush rising up on her cheeks. "I can direct bad juju."

This time, it was Scott who leaned forward a bit at that. "How so?"

"Well," she said, turning his way so she could speak directly. "I can … kind of make the bad things a little worse. Good things a little better. I'm not sure how it works, just that it does, but I'm gonna figure it out; don't you worry about that."

Scott couldn't help but grin at her. "I can understand that. That's the whole point of our school, after all: learning to control and understand our powers."

"You think you gotta good way to explain what it is I can do?" Joulie asked with one eyebrow raised.

"I think we have a member of our team who can," Scott said.

"I wouldn't say no to givin' them a shot," Joulie replied.

Scott smirked at that. "After dinner, why don't you talk to Jana? She can look into your mutation and tell you not just what you can do but what you're capable of."

She looked to James, who nodded once, and then, she broke into a smile. "That sounds good to me."

"Get ready for the self-defense lessons," James whispered her way, which only prompted her to grin wider.

"That just means you're gonna have to either teach me or stand in while I hit you."

"Probably both," James agreed, though they simply settled in and enjoyed their dinner together without too many more questions from the adults, who seemed to just be enjoying watching the two of them out of the corner of their eyes.

"Looks like he has his father's taste in women," Kurt teased as he elbowed Logan.

"Yep: smart, sassy, and drop dead gorgeous," Logan agreed. "Best kind."