Kat broke from Scott self-consciously, causing Scott’s brow to pucker in a frown. He held himself awkwardly without her pressed against him, as though someone had yanked a blanket off him. She stood a foot away, shuffling back and forth on her feet with a forced smile planted on her lips. “What’s that all about?” Scott asked. “Just because Sienna and Zack can’t touch doesn’t mean we can’t.”
“It’s fine,” I said with stifled amusement. “Really. We’re okay, honest. It doesn’t bother me if you guys are all lovey-dovey around us; I doubt I’d be that way even without my…” I let my eyes drift to Zack, who looked away, “…condition.”
“See?” Scott leaned forward and his hand landed back on Kat’s hip. She reddened, but made no move to displace it. “Sienna’s a good sport about it.” He pulled her tight to him again. Kat, for her part, held her body at an angle from his, as though she were trying to touch as little of him as she could get away with.
“If you two do get too frisky, though,” I said, stirring the cocktail wieners in their bowl, “I will turn loose the firehose on you.”
“Try it,” Scott said. “I bet the water ends up going somewhere unexpected—like the front of your boyfriend’s pants.”
“I wouldn’t bet on it,” Reed said. “I have a feeling the wind might catch it and turn your girlfriend into a wet t-shirt contest winner.” I heard a snicker from Zack and saw Scott’s shoulders shake with quiet laughter as Kat remained posed awkwardly.
“Have you guys ever combined your powers to make, like, a water twister?” Zack looked from Scott to Reed, and I watched the silent conversation between the two of them as they both gave it a moment of thought.
“That’s kind of a cool idea,” Scott said, and separated himself from Kat with all the effort of turning loose a feline held against its will . “Should we?”
“Not in here,” I said, replacing the lid on the dish and putting the spoon in its rest, splattering barbecue sauce on my tablecloth. “I need a metahuman power experiment in my quarters like I need Ariadne to dock my pay for a major remodel.”
“Outside?” Scott suggested.
“Let’s do it.”
The two of them went through the French doors to the balcony, Zack a few steps behind them. Kat remained behind on the sofa, her face pressed into her hands. There was a light chill as the doors opened and shut, a gust of wind as they went out and Reed held the door for Zack. When Zack shut it behind him he gave me a little wave through the glass. Even though I knew he couldn’t see me through the tinted pane, I waved back.
“Things seem to be going smoothly again between you two,” Kat said. I noted a wet handprint on the side of her white jeans and my hand came up to indicate it with a point. “Hm?” She looked down. “Oh, yeah. When Scott gets excited, sometimes he gets a little, uh…out of control with his power, doesn’t realize he’s using it.” She flushed and looked out the French doors to the balcony, where Reed and Scott stood side by side, Zack a few feet away at the edge of the terrace.
“Yeah, Zack and I are doing better,” I said. “It’s easier now, somehow, since we broke up and got back together, I guess.” I grabbed a mini sub sandwich that had been sliced into one-inch segments, and took a bite. Roast beef, turkey, ham, lettuce, tomato, mayo and mustard combined in my mouth with oil and vinegar. “Seems like that cut some of the tension out of the relationship, the inflated expectation because we’ll never be able to, uh…well,” I hemmed, “you know.”
Kat’s eyebrows rose. “Have sex?”
“Yeah. That.”
“So you don’t know how your mom did it with your dad?”
“Kind of, I think,” I said, pinching the sandwich between my fingers with enough force that it pulped and I mashed it into my mouth before it came apart. “But I mean…I don’t know. It doesn’t seem very romantic, what I’ve figured out. There’s not a lot of contact, you have to wear protection, it just seems…” I shrugged. “Cold. Calculating. Like Mom, I guess. Not warm and affectionate at all, everything at a distance except…well. Pretty sure I was an accident based on what she told me. I don’t know, we’ve been doing…” I felt myself redden, “other stuff that seems to make him happy, so I haven’t really wanted to venture into dangerous territory by trying something potentially fatal.”
Her eyes widened. “‘Potentially fatal’ does seem to be on the far side of exciting.”
“Not quite the kind of excitement I’m looking for, no…”
There was a noise out on the balcony, and I looked up to see Scott throw his hands in the air in exultation. “YES!” I heard him call through the glass.
“Oh, good, they’ve created an elemental disaster that they’re super excited about,” Kat said without any enthusiasm. “Do you suppose he’ll notice if I’m not as thrilled about it as he is?”
I watched Scott turn around as the three of them came back toward the door, heading inside. “Nope,” I said, “He’s gonna be happy about this whether you are or not.”
“That. Was. Amazing!” Scott said as they opened the door again, letting the chill wind follow them inside. Reed and Zack trailed behind him. “We totally did it, created a waterspout right in the middle of the lawn, out of nothing—”
“Yes,” Zack said, unimpressed, “and promptly ran it over a line of meta teens that were leaving the building.”
“Pfeh,” Scott said with a wave of the hand. “Nobody got hurt.”
“No,” Reed said, “but that one kid looked scared as hell when he flew about ten feet into the air.” I watched my brother’s expression; he did not seem pleased.
Scott snickered. “Yeah, but…it was funny. You could have just dropped him the minute he walked into the path of it, you know.”
“First of all,” Reed said, “he didn’t walk into the path of it so much as he veered like a moron into it and got sucked into the air, second, I didn’t want to drop him because he was at least ten feet off the ground, third,” he reddened, “I bet he never stares at Sienna in the cafeteria line again.”
“Aww, you were taking up for my honor?” I gave him a fake smile. “The little one with glasses?” Reed shook his head. “Oh, well, still, how sweet. Next time, though, run your water tornado into Clary’s room and wash the place out. Of course, that’d be a labor on par with cleaning out the Augean stables, though I bet it’d take more than a day, even if you used the entire Mississippi…”
“Can we get the movie going?” Scott asked, wiping his hands on his pants and leaving behind dark water marks where he touched. “I don’t want to be out too late tonight.”
“Why?” Zack asked, peering at him with snarky amusement. “You afraid of the dark or are you gonna start going to bed early like an old man?”
“Yep,” Scott said with a nod as he slid back onto the couch in front of my widescreen TV, “I am going to bed early tonight. I want to be in bed by nine so I can be back out again before ten.”
“Why would you go to bed just so you can get back up again?” Kat asked with a frown. “That doesn’t make any sense— oh.” The rest of us remained silent as her hand came up to her face, covering it from sight.
“Movie?” Scott asked again, a Cheshire smile twisting his lips into a grin as he turned his head around to look at me, still at the table.
After starting the movie, I settled down and let myself begin to relax, my preparations done. The couches were set up in a right angle in the little pit that was my living room. Scott and Kat sat on one couch, Kat’s head resting on Scott’s shoulder, her blond hair entangled in his brown, fuzzy mohair-looking sweater. I pondered that fashion statement until I realized she was wearing a similar one and that she had picked the ensemble out for both of them.