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Crimson Claws

18.

"Okay - look at that. Don't they look good?"

Broadway lifted the lid of the waffle iron all the way up, standing upright where he had been bent over before to peer into the maw of the iron with the little hatchling in his arm to see if the batter was crisp and golden brown. Not that Tachi was really looking. She leaned against Broadway's biceps but only looked in the direction of the counter because he had positioned her that way. Otherwise, her little claws played with the seams of Broadway's t-shirt, lost in thought - whatever those thoughts were supposed to be.

"But how do we test if the waffles are really exactly right and perfect?" Angela cooed next to Broadway, stroking the white-haired hatchling's mane. She had left her base at the pans where she and Broadway had previously made a mountain of hearty pancakes with minced meat and sweet ones with blueberries. But Tachi - despite everything - had a waffle phase so she got waffles. Lexington smirked over his glass of orange juice.

Broadway and Angela were practicing like crazy for parenthood. Of course, their hatchling would be raised as a child of the clan, but it was obvious that they were flexing their parenting muscles, with Broadway being strangely more committed than Angela, who had been raised by humans. Perhaps there was a closet Rookery Keeper in his big gentle turquoise brother.

And that was good, Lex thought... one less thing he had to feel guilty about because he was planning to move to London. He hadn't even unpacked his suitcase properly this time, keeping it open in his room as a constant reminder, taking out what he needed, putting in what he intended to take with him. The open suitcases annoyed him, but that was the point. They reminded him that he had to talk to his clan leader, the Second, yes, everyone. No real procrastination here. He couldn't put it off forever, his next flight over was already booked. Of course, he always had the option of flying back, but he would be staying with the London clan and Amp. Yes, that would be fine. Thanks to the internet and overnight flights - the world had grown so close together. He didn't have to worry too much about the Manhattan clan and they certainly didn't have to worry about him. They loved him too much to guilt-trip him about it.

Lexington's eyes flitted over Nashville, who wolfed down an apple in two bites, to his red brother. Everyone loved Tachi, but the way Brooklyn watched his second hatchling interact with others again was disheartening. Brook tended to be melancholic but when he reacted to Tachi there was always this mixture of love and pain that you could almost taste on your tongue. Even if it wasn't something Lexington could have helped with. He had done brain scans on the child and either they didn't work on gargoyles or Tachi's brain was perfectly normal. Not even he or Xanatos could fix something that no one knew what needed to be fixed.

And asking Alex or asking for anything - impossible. The boy was a prodigy but he was still learning and many of his spells or fey tricks backfired. The spell that had turned Xanatos and Fox into chickens? - A knee-slapper but worth 8 weeks of grounding. The spell that gave Brooklyn a helium voice all night - hilarious but not deliberate. Katana's out-of-control sword come to life, bouncing bloodthirstily through the castle - not funny at all. Brooklyn watched from his seat at the table as the little hatchling didn't even react to the obvious coaxing and promise of the first waffle as one should expect from a child. No fidgeting, no greedy or happy grabbing for the waffle, which Broadway plucked one-handed from the previously greased iron and placed on a plate to cool.

Lexington knew it wasn't all love and pain in Brooklyn's demeanor towards Tachi. It was also this impotent bitterness. Cooled fury. For Demona's shameful deed back in 1997. Abducting an egg. Abusing Elisa, while under the slave spell, for it - something her human clan mother still dwelled on. They all knew it hadn't been Elisa's fault! They had all been angry, horrified, distraught that one of their own had been used to eggnap a clan child as well as over Coldstone's betrayal. His motivation may have been reasonable from his point of view but to ally himself with Demona? EVERYONE always had good intentions and believed the end justified all means! Demona had truly believed it ... a rescue mission to save this hatchling from the human-friendly path she thought would wipe out the entire Gargoyle race.

And did anyone resent Angela's good faith in Demona's heart - however small it might be? Not really. Naivety and hope were easily confused. Angela had hope even for the supposedly hopeless. Only - Lexington assumed - she was a few decades too early. Lex was not only smart (factual) but also observant (statistically proven) and he could read Brooklyn as well as Broadway. They were Rookery brothers and that bond was strong despite everything. He knew that if Brooklyn didn't loathe Demona with everything he had, there had to be a reason. One that he just couldn't share with anyone for fear of upsetting the time stream. Brooklyn must have met another Demona in the future. One who was worthy of not forgetting - but forgiving - what she had done in 1997. For the same reason, Brooklyn and Katana must have spoken out in favor of Coldstone rejoining the clan alongside Coldfire. Even if this episode hadn't lasted that long, who was to say what an Eggling under the shell was able to perceive of the traumatic events outside? What remained as trauma or "damage". Whether that had contributed to Tachi's developmental peculiarities or what the impact of the Time Dance era was. Pre-hatching trauma.

When Angela plucked off a piece of the first waffle with the assurance that Tachi's tasting was an important contribution to the late brunch mission, the hatchling licked her beak. A silent acknowledgment of the situation before she willingly opened her mouth so that the delicacy could be placed in it. The rest was pressed into her hand and she munched on it intently as the soon-to-be new parents in the clan placed her on the floor and pushed her towards the table, which the hatchling then wobbled towards without looking at anyone. The little girl briefly lost her focus when Elisa came in and the hatchling squatted down on the floor to paw at the zippers on the side of her new sneakers (so zippers tonight - oh boy).

Her human aunt leaned down, kissed her on the beak, lifted her back to her feet and gently pushed her back towards the table with the comment that her cocoa was probably already cold. The child climbed onto the seat between Brooklyn and Katana because this was her seat and the child psychologist (yes, for human children of course, but at least he was smart or briefed enough to never use the bad a-word) had recommended that any seat Tachi chose anywhere should always be her seat. Consistency and trust that as little as possible would change in her environment were good for Tachi. Where Brooklyn vehemently rejected the word autism, even forbidding it, Lexington had read up on it to be able to assess and evaluate all the possibilities and give tips that could help the child without ticking off her sensitive father.

Fixed routines and rules so that she could find her way around and not ... No, she wasn't autistic in the sense that she banged her head against walls when something was too overwhelming for her. She never took new things badly, just fluctuated between absolute disregard or temporary hyper-interest.

And once again, the child showed a strange clarity - almost a seventh sense as she crawled over Katana's thighs and towards Lex, jolting him out of his brooding.

Tachi crawled onto his lap, pulled her children's cup of cocoa towards her and drank large sips. Katana chuckled next to him and her look at her hatchling was so loving. Katana searched Brooklyn's eyes and they both smiled. Yes, everyone would be fine. Whatever Tachi was- she didn't fall into any spectrum disorder. She seemed detached from the events around her. But then she kept doing something like that - seeking closeness because she seemed to feel his inner turmoil. She didn't really take in less ... but more. Lexington wouldn't be intimidated, but excited to watch her develop. But everything would move in the direction it should and had to, even without his constant direct presence.

Nashville's Nokia was buzzing.

Xanatos Media department had spoken out in favor of sponsoring him an iPhone so that he could build a more direct line to his fans, become more approachable and tangible outside of New York. They painted it as an inevitable evolution and trend. Anyone who didn't take part in the rise of social media and real-time web would be left behind, forgotten. A prospect that had moved Nash to ask for something again after a long time. But a sixteen-year-old superstar gargoyle as content creator? They all had too many secrets and half-truths on and around them for something like that to be beneficial to the Gargoyle Nation.

And Nash wouldn't really have posted this and that for the benefit and further integration of the Gargoyle race. Lexington knew why Nash was still quite anxious to be seen even though he wasn't very enthusiastic about his fame status. Again... Hope, not naivety. But a sobering hope, something that would settle as he grew up. That was even good - at some point he would want to say goodbye to the spotlight and be a real full-time gargoyle again. Without thoughts of Graziella Dracon.

As if the little gangster princess who had turned their lives upside down with Nash back then would still be thinking about Nashville now. Lex hadn't felt that way at the time because of the strange psychological dependency Nashville had developed with the little Dracon brat, but it had been good that the kid had run off to the other side of the world back then. The bond no longer existed. It had saved Nash's life back then, but he didn't need it now. Nashville would still be carrying around that ragged cuddly bunny with Graziella's hair in it, whining for her. As it was now, it was okay. Nashville was content and functional.

They had agreed on a middle way with the media department. No I-Phone to stalk for Dracons and Graziellas and pretty girls with moles all over the world (as if Lexington didn't do that regularly himself- as a precaution. And always noted with satisfaction that there was no Graziella Dracon on any of the sites, not even the Italian ones).

Instead, Pam, Nashville's manager, would feed his Facebook and Twitter page with photos and ridiculously vacuous but likeable comments. She was a pro and could make it sound like Nash was in touch with the cruelly vain and superficial pulse of the world. Honestly, it sounded like a nightmare even to Lex. He himself was of course active on Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed but not as Lexington Wyvern, the gargoyle. Heavens, he wasn't crazy. Lex relied on his good childproofing in the castle. But the unblocked internet was a cruel place they didn't want to keep from their rookling forever but longer.

Nashville didn't need to read the trash that popped up about gargoyles and him in particular on the forums. How would he take hate on the internet, even with a social media manager? Or God, what if he stumbled across the fanfiction stories where he or others of the clan were constantly experiencing violence! This real-person fiction was not harassment and was allowed as long as it did not advocate or incite specific, actually harmful acts against real people. There were stories in which Nash or Brooklyn were raped, tortured and/or impregnated in every conceivable way, by the great Dragon, he should never have skimmed over some of them out of curiosity, he had almost thrown up in front of the psychologist he had talked it over with afterwards. At that point, Lex was happy to be overlooked and not considered particularly stimulating by humans. The bloodhounds of Xanatos Media could take brutal action against death threats and requests to readers to harass certain people, but not against this.

Katana and Brooklyn's firstborn typed a message to his Pam (the only contact apart from clan members) with a bluntly filed index finger claw and stood up. Nashville tipped his own untouched cocoa into Tachi's cup before smiling and rubbing her mane. It wasn't even an hour after sunset and he already looked tired.

"You're a good girl, little Red. I've got to go, guys. Have a good patrol."

"You haven't even eaten one pancake yet," Brooklyn commented with a questioningly dissatisfied look on his face. And yes- there was his brow arch of frustration (better than the brow arch off disappointment or the brow arch off doom but not by much).

"I'm eating in the studio."

Nash was almost at the door when Broadway intercepted him with a giant tupperware bowl. "Stopstopstop. Here, take these with you."

Nashville rolled his eyes like the teenager he was.

"Broadway, they have catering. You don't have to feed me."

"I'll feed anyone!" replied Broadway, grinning cheerfully and patting Nash on the stomach. "And you need more meat on these bones if you ever want to woo a female."

"That's right," Angela called from the stove as the others snickered. Nashville smiled in that friendly but fundamentally uncomfortable way.

"Ha, yeah, that's right. Okay, thanks. I'll eat it later," he said chipperly, grabbing the bowl, presumably just to avoid the direction of the conversation. It was affectionate banter among clan. It was well meant. But he was probably just thinking; what females? Millions of people loved or loathed him. All without knowing him. And no human wanted a relationship with him in real life. Not that Lex knew, at least. And he would know that! Maybe ... when he was in London, Lex would be able to persuade sweet Lunette to do a student exchange with New York. But first he had to convince Una and Leo - brrr - the fight never ended.

"I'll recommend myself too. Brooklyn, As always-" Goliath said, wiping his mouth with demurely with a napkin before carrying his plate to the sink.

"Of course. No problem," his Second replied with a supportive smile. He had been operating as clan leader for an increasingly long time. It wasn't a transfer of power from one night to the next like with Hudson. It was a slow transition, not really accelerated but certainly supported by Elisa's illness. Goliath was oscillating between worlds in a way that was probably not more intense but more personal than that of Nashville. The human world and the gargoyle world. Different rhythms in time and challenges. There was less need for a warrior with the roar for war and more need for a mediator, mentor, guardian of the law within the framework set by the human world. In the past, Elisa had performed on this tightrope to a greater extent and no one had questioned it simply because she had done it with joy and apparent ease.

But even if the head refused to accept this truth for a long time, the body showed when enough was enough with endless night shifts, overtime, always being on hand for both human and inhuman matters and events that took their toll. Plus the stress of constantly having to keep secrets, sweeping Gargoyle activities that didn't quite comply with the law under the carpet and being known as a clan member and mate of a Gargoyle, even if Grant Turnbull had been able to dispel some of these rumors. Many reporters and gargoyle aficionados (both negative and positive) had dismissed Elisa, but not all of them. By the time she was diagnosed, it was clear to everyone that things couldn't go on like this if they wanted to keep their Elisa for much longer. Goliath had to enter the human world just as much as Elisa had done for her clan for so long. That meant it needed a clan leader who didn't just have one foot in and one foot out.

"Bring Elisa some pancakes," Broadway said, and Goliath good-naturedly waited for him to load up a bowl. It was enough to provide all the kids in the station with a midnight snack, which might earn Grant a scolding from Elisa and the nurses because the little ones would have already brushed their teeth. Perhaps ... the nurses could also be bribed with some of the mincemeat or blueberry pancakes.

"I probably won't be at the castle tonight. But please don't hesitate to call me if you need backup on anything," their senior clan leader announced casually as he struggled to get the lid on the overloaded bowl without crushing the plastic.

"A mission on your own behalf, brother?" asked Coldstone as he sat next to Coldfire. Neither of them were eating but they appreciated the relaxed closeness of clan.

Goliath's expression became uncharacteristically sly and a little taunting. "Indeed. Grant and I have an assignment from Elisa."

His semi-mechanical clan brother rolled his eyes (update from 2005 that he liked to use and always made everyone snicker) "Uhuh, then um, have fun, I suppose. Get back to us if this ... assignment requires backup."

Goliath gave him a playful pat on the back, wished the rest of his family a good patrol and disappeared from sight. Even though Coldstone was reformed, he sometimes found it unnerving how the clan members mingled more and more with the human world. Lex knew it was the old worry that had led to his earlier transgression, but at this point the android was a hypocrite! Lexington had seen during his last non-automatic hard disk cleaning and defragmentation that Coldstone had quite a lot of friendly Facebook chat histories with an Air Force Major General Haddad. Not to make any plots ... but on topics like hunting techniques, trapping for hare and ferret, fly fishing - old man stuff! Coldstone, the old hypocrite, had warmed up to a human, had an internet buddy, a bromance, and Lex would raise the alarm if it suddenly came to more sinister things like expertly skinning a caught hare.

He would let Coldstone keep up his misanthropic façade, he wasn't going to "out" anyone with what he found in the computers or what the clan members were doing virtually to pass the time. Okay- he was a creeper at this point and too snoopy but it was his own way of protecting the clan even without being six feet tall and bulky. But being a tech genius, always having his finger on potential dangers, especially in systems that affected the Eyrie Building or the Clan, was also sometimes frustrating. He groaned in agony and shifted Tachi from one thigh to the other as his cell phone played the Crazy Frog ringtone. The guy for whom he had programmed the sound would never call him, of course, because he was so smart himself, but his nightly search software, which was supposed to detect irregularities, played this sound whenever Dopey from the security service made a mess.

Lex scrolled through the error code his systems were reporting, his lower jaw probably pushed ridiculously far forward in a petulant manner.

"Arrrg, Dobey's been messing with the security audit scripts for the lobby and the suppliers again during the day! Guys, I'll fix it fast. I've still got five minutes left to call out a human, yeah?"

"Sure, Lex, have fun," Angela said with a sigh, now sitting at the table and handing out pancakes. Lex stood up and put Tachi in her seat.

"Fun? Sure! When I face him, I wish I had a bazooka like Demona did back then. Only one that shoots brains. And Owen ignores my complaints. How can you put someone like that in charge of security for the evening shift?"

"Sure, you don't hate him just because he has different ideas about security than you? You're both tech nerds. You should find a compromise," Brooklyn pointed out.

Lexington scoffed as he hopped to the kitchen counter, grumbling under his breath accompanied by the clatter of dishes.

"We would if Dopey wasn't such an incompetent, unreasonably arrogant Gargoyle despiser. And he doesn't even acknowledge my expertise and talks to me like I'm the idiot!"

"Outrageous!" Broadway proclaimed, and Lex nodded vigorously like a wacky wobbler, smirking snarkily at his brother because he knew he'd just been lovingly mocked.

"You have the same goal, Lexington. To keep the building safe. The fact that you call him after that droll dwarf in Snow White is not a sign of collegiality," Katana reminded him with a hint of a smile.

"I think it's called short stature these days," said Coldfire, which made Katana smile wider. Meanwhile, Lexington continued to bubble as he huffily walked past his clan on all fours.

"Safe me some pancakes! Imagine if he not only monitored and patrolled the lower 99 floors of the Eyriebuilding but also came all the way into the castle! I wouldn't be able to sleep peacefully for another day! I have more smarts in one claw than he has in his whole-"

When his voice faded, surely he was already in the elevator down to the human monitoring room, Brooklyn sighed into his coffee.

"Wow, I really wouldn't want to trade places with that Miller."

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Do you girls want the next chapter to be a little spicy? You'll get it.^^

Thanks for reading, Q.T.