"Your hair looks so healfhy, mommy."

bvvt

Maya snorted into the picnic basket she'd been packing in the Mansion kitchen. It'd been a long night watching the grounds last night, but it'd been her turn and the other adults all took their turns to help keep them safe. She was convinced that was why it'd been so long between their last destructive brawl and now: vigilance. It was just poor timing on her part to have scheduled a picnic for the day after an all-nighter.

She was running on a 2 hour nap, but that was pretty normal mommy-hood stuff right there.

bvvt

Her phone vibrated against the counter again, but her hands were full."Where did you hear that?" The kid was like a sponge. He was just at that age. Maya debated if there was enough food. He was also of the age where he was always hungry.

"There was a 'mershal and the lady was like whoosh with his hair." Rowan flung his head around in an invisible wind represented by his arms. "It was like your hair! They say-ed it's healfhy."

Maybe some fruit. Apples? "Like this?" Maya summoned a breeze and swirled it up and around Rowan before blasting her hair back up off her shoulders.

"Nooo!" He giggled, but his tone was all business. "Not so hard!" She adjusted accordingly until Rowan was imitating her silly hair flicks.

bvvt bvvt bvvt

What in the world? Maya checked her phone to see a string of increasingly frantic messages from Cafas.

IS he scared of anything?
Should I like, bring a gift or something?
What are we, to him? Like, 'friend'?
Maya I'm freaking out, what if he doesn't like me?
What does he like? TV? Are there cartoons I should know?

bvvt

It buzzed in her hands before she had even clicked into the reply field.

Oh my god, what am I meant to do if a fan comes up to us? They can get really... Well you know!

She grinned at her phone, touched that he was worried and that he was taking Rowan's feelings and opinions seriously.

"Is it Sam? Are we going to the park again?"

"We're going to the park together. Yes. But not with Sam."

"Awww."

No gifts. Give him your attention. Listen to him like you would listen to an adult. Important things first, he'd better not be out buying something. Hopefully she'd caught him before that.

"We're going with someone better. His name is Cafas and I really like him. I think you will too."

You'll have to ask him if he's afraid of anything. Same for likes. It would be better for them to get to know one another and not have Maya be their permanent intermediary.

She yawned into her hand and asked Ro to pick out napkins from the pantry to give him something to do.

What was Cafas to Rowan? Goodness. Maybe she could skip that one. Friend is good. I don't know. You're my Cafas. He'll like you. You're incredibly likeable.

I think we're all packed up if you're around we can head out soon.

"I found applesauce! Can we bring applesauce?"

Crap. She'd forgotten that she'd sent him into the pantry alone.

Cafas hadn't been able to sit still all morning. Every time he tried he had to get back up and pace almost immediately. He'd more than once found himself reaching for the liquor cabinet, but of all days, this one he had to master that urge.

He hadn't been able to eat breakfast. His hair had seen a dozen or more styles that day. Half his wardrobe was thrown across his bed, arranged in outfits that were subsequently discarded. He'd tried calming himself with a coffee but why he thought that would work was a mystery even to him.

Finally he'd headed to the Mansion. Maybe he could hang around there and be calmer? He ended up in the library trying to read for an hour. It worked just as much as anything else had that day. He was now just nervous and two chapters into a Finance textbook reading about macroeconomics.

Finally he caved and just texted Maya. He hadn't wanted her to think he was silly. It wasn't that important to him by that stage. Cafas' thumbs were a blur across the lower part of his screen. Never had he texted so quickly. Maybe he should call? No he was in a library.

IS he scared of anything?
Should I like, bring a gift or something?
What are we, to him? Like, 'friend'?
Maya I'm freaking out, what if he doesn't like me?
What does he like? TV? Are there cartoons I should know?
Oh my god, what am I meant to do if a fan comes up to us? They can get really... Well you know!

He had more questions, but replies started coming in, and that was more important. He decided he didn't need to know any more about the GDP cycle and closed his book to better read Maya's texts.

No gifts. Give him your attention. Listen to him like you would listen to an adult.

How did he listen to an adult? Was there a specific way to listen to them? If there were no gifts, how was he meant to like Cafas? Everyone liked people that gave gifts, fact! No gift, no like, clearly, it was just logical!

No it's not, oh my god calm down...

You'll have to ask him if he's afraid of anything. Same for likes

Ask him? Well that made sense. Weird thing to bring up in conversation, really, but he could give it a go! Maya was so smart! That would buy him so much more time that he didn't have to think about new things to say! Maya was the best. Beautiful, smart, funny, awesomely powerful. She had it all. Cafas heart rate came to a far more pleasant rate. He smiled for the first time since he'd last thought of Maya.

I think we're all packed up if you're around we can head out soon.

All packed! Okay! Cafas took a deep breath. then several more. Then he replied.

I'm in the Library. Meet you out front!

He put on his brave face. Show time. He put all his acting ability into maintaining an air of composure and cheeriness. Partly for Maya, mostly for Rowan. He pushed his nerves aside and strode out to the front door, with a short stop past the 332s to return the book. There he smiled a smile that was given away by his very green eyes and waited patiently.

Okay dude, big leagues. You can do this. Just... I don't know, just remember what Maya texted you.

Ah. Out front. No big.

"C'mon, stinker." She let Rowan reach up and plop 4 individual tubs of apple sauce in the basket. "Cafas is out front. You wanna hold my hand, or...?" Once he knew where to go, the kid was off like a flash. "Oh. Okay. That's cool too." Maya eyed the basket and pushed up her sleeves.

"Guh!" She shimmied it off the counter and it dropped down right through her fingers and passed through the leg she'd thrown out to try and stop it from crashing into the ground. It was too heavy. Rowan was too heavy these days. She should have known better.

Maya looked around to be sure nobody would fuss at her before she tossed the few items that had bounced out back into the basket. She'd been worried that it wasn't enough before. Now she was sure it was too dang much.

Rowan bounded to the front foyer, skinny kid arms and legs flailing, and looked around. Did he know what a Cafas looked like? Maybe not, but he did know how to get the front door. "Hurry up, momma!"

Her power preceded her. Little wisps of air blew through the hall, breakaways from the massive gust Maya had harnessed to carry the basket for her. It was tricky to keep the balance so that nothing was dumping out. That's why she never flew in her solid body as Zephyr had. There were more fun things to do while flying than get bugs in your teeth.

"I'm going outsiiiide!" Rowan called back once he'd seen Maya and pushed the door open hard enough that it banged into the decorative plant behind it. He rushed out and bounced off of an adult, landing in a blinking heap just left of the welcome mat.

His most noticeable feature was his skin: ashy grey like a zombie. His ears were migrating up his head, awkwardly placed for a human and too elongated and angular. His nose was tipped in pitch black, slightly moist. His eyes were black and curious about the pink-haired man he'd bounced off of.

"Cafas!" Maya pushed the basket out the door first, the wind ruffling through her and Rowan's hair as it had before when they'd been pantomiming shampoo commercials. Maya tried to comb hers down and grab hold of it at least while she stepped in to give Cafas a side hug. Rowan's hair was short enough that it didn't matter. "I think we're taking the entire kitchen. Can you...?" She motioned to the basket as Rowan, suddenly shy, scrambled up to hide behind Maya's skirt. That became Maya's next priority to hold on to.

"He has pink hair!" He whispered in the way that children whisper, which is to say that Rowan was practically shouting. "That's weird!"

>"I'm going outsiiiide!"

Cafas stepped out of the way of the door just in time. It fair bounced off the pot plant behind it. He tried to see what had caused the door to spring open so fast, but it had already bounced off of him and was sitting on the ground. A young child coming into his mutational metamorphosis. He wasn't the strangest looking person on campus by a long shot, but probably one of the youngest to display mutation.

Cafas recognised the description.

Ah! No! what do I do? Damage control? HELP ME BRAIN WHY HAVE YOU ABANDONED ME!

Luckily Maya saved Cafas from his panic. A big gust of wind supporting a picnic basket flowed through the door, shortly followed by the source of said gust. She was wearing the Maya special. Of course she was, that's why it was the Maya special.

"Cafas!"

Lucky for you, brain, Maya has saved us from worsening this situation somehow.

The hug helped. He felt considerably less nervous after. Like his brain had returned to functionality and his mouth with it. "Hey!" His smile was just that little bit more genuine too. Red crept across his eyes, over-riding the green.

"I think we're taking the entire kitchen. Can you...?"

Cafas was not a man that needed to be told twice. Especially not when it came to picking up heavy things. The pink-haired nerve-ball reached out with his left hand and grasped the basket. It creaked under its own weight, but Cafas hardly noticed it. "I think you might have left the sink behind, but that's fine, we'll just wash up when we get back." He turned his attention down to the ashy skinned youngster hiding behind his mother's skirt. A bit of the wind seemed to catch said skirt, but Maya was well practiced and caught it before it became immodest.

>"He has pink hair!"

>"That's weird!"

Kid had a good point. Pink hair was often cited as an odd choice. How many magazine articles had he read about it now? At least six. It tended to go down better at the Teen Choice awards than the big industry awards. Cafas debated squatting down to come level for eye line. Well, sort of level, he was twice the kid's height. He figured it was probably better than being all tall and scary.

"Hi! You've gotta be Rowan, right? I'm Cafas, and yeah, the hair's kinda weird. My eyes are weirder, you just keep watching them from time to time."

Was that a good opener? Oh man, what was he MEANT to say? Cafas could feel the nerves sweep through, but it gave him an idea. He dropped a wink right on the end of his sentence. Unable to actually detect the colour shift he kind of just hoped the wink was well timed. It was pretty close. The nervous green swept back in as his brain scrambled to figure out how to get Rowan to like him.

Maya opened her mouth to tell Rowan how rude he was being, but Cafas was on the ball with a good deflection. She could have kissed him for that alone.

"Whoa." He'd let go of Maya's skirt and was leaning in for a better view now.

The timing of that wink was right on and since powers were cool, that was cool. Way. Cool.

"You got Christmas tree eyes. You can do it on purpose?"

"Have." Maya corrected and smoothed her skirt since the wind had died down. It always felt a little weird to be still. "You have Christmas tree eyes."

Maya looked a question at Cafas. She didn't know what Christmas tree colors meant, but she was pretty sure it wasn't on purpose. Maya had only recently noticed that red was an option and had only clearly pegged it as not angry.

Well. It didn't matter, really. She had time to figure it out.

"To the park!" Maya punched upward into the air!

"The paaaaaark!" Her little mimic copied her motions and then they just had to high five. It was, like, a rule. Maya captured Rowan's hand and turned it toward Cafas so that he too got a high five from Rowan who would be too shy to ask for it, but clearly wanted one.

From there Rowan gamboled ahead. Maya offered one of her hands for Cafas to hold. It was for safety. Yeah. They had to stick together as they walked across the Mansion lawn and to the bus stop. She could tell it was going to be a long day of managing expectations, but she hoped it'd be the fulfilling kind of day.

Once they were on the bus, Rowan clambored to sit next to the window. And Cafas had to sit next to him because Cafas was new and exciting. He wasn't Sam. Rowan reminded them both as much, but... well, no one was Sam, but Sam.

Maya took a seat on the row behind the two boys. "Okay, Ro. What are the rules?"

"Answer mom or you get time out."

"And?"

"Have fun?"

"No running off. Hold my hand of Cafas' hand near the street. And...?"

"...Play Rescue Bots?"

"Stay where mom can see you." Maya pressed her lips together. Honestly! They went over this like every day when they lived together in the city. It wasn't like it ever changed.

>"You got Christmas tree eyes. You can do it on purpose?"

"Have. You have Christmas tree eyes."

To be fair, I got them too, from genetics... Shut up Cafas.

"Nah, they do it themselves. It shows how I'm feeling. Christmas tree is it? That'd be red for your mom and green for you." Mixtures was generally where he really lost people. His eyes never bothered to distinguish between actual mixed emotions and composite emotions. Calley had kept a list, and even he had to rely on context for mixed colours.

"To the park!"

>"The paaaaaark!"

"The park!"

Cafas was not entirely sure if he was meant to join in, but he was not going to be left out of a battlecry. Nor the high fives! High fives for everyone! High five for Rowan first! Honestly he was following Maya's lead, not entirely sure what to do himself. He tried not it let it show. He was using reflex speed honed through fighting (and Call of Duty) to try and seem like he wasn't just taking cues.

I mean, is it so bad if Maya knows? You remember those texts right?

Rowan was off and racing for the gate. Cafas accepted Maya's offered hand and dropped the brave face while Rowan wasn't looking. He offered a nervous smile to Maya as they walked. She was making it better. He was immediately grateful she hadn't gotten him as a sitter. He couldn't imagine how nervous he'd be without her there.

He got a taste of that when they got on the bus. He was sitting next to Rowan? Okay, well, he could sit, right? That wasn't so hard. Was he sitting correctly? How would Sam sit? Rowan clearly liked Sam, Cafas should sit like him. He hadn't really spent that much time with Sam though! He should just sit like himself. He knew how to do that. Did he though? Suddenly his own posture felt kind of stiff. Did he normally slouch more? No he was pretty sure he didn't. He sat the basket on his lap.

Why is it so hard to sit?

"Okay, Ro. What are the rules?"

There were rules? Were there rules for Cafas? Was he going to be quizzed? Should he have studied? What was he meant to study? No one had given him a course outline or text book!

Don't be dumb, Rowan's her son, she means his rules. Your rules I'm sure you'll learn in time.

>"Answer mom or you get time out."

Seemed a harsh punishment for not answering. Cafas kept his fool mouth shut though. Last thing Maya needed was him undermining her authority. That would not at all go down well. He didn't need experience with parents to know that one. Wait, was he undermining her authority already? Where was the line between good natured fun and undermining authority? Was there a line or would he be better off representing it with a Venn diagram?

"And?"

>"Have fun?"

"No running off. Hold my hand of Cafas' hand near the street. And...?"

Cafas' hand? Cafas wasn't ready for that! Responsibility for a child's safety? He was barely able to keep himself safe! He'd really never been the civilian management specialist on missions. Now he was being entrusted with Rowan's safety? What if something went wrong? Maya would never forgive him!

So don't let it go wrong! I don't know, I don't have anything better for you there.

>"...Play Rescue Bots?"

That didn't sound like a real rule...

"Stay where mom can see you."

Because it wasn't! Ha! He was getting the hang of this. What were rescue bots? Was that a real game? Maybe it was like, a game of imagination? Wait, the answers to these questions and more were sitting right next to him! "What're rescue bots? Are they like Transformers?" Cafas knew Transformers, at least a little. He'd seen a couple of episodes as a kid. Hopefully they were like Rescue Bots and he could totally be cool and relate!

See, you thought of a question all on your own!

> "What're rescue bots? Are they like Transformers?"

"Yes!"

Oh dear. "Here comes the flood." Maya muttered and made a grab for Rowan as he pulled his feet up into his seat and stood so that he was essentially bus surfing. "Sit down," Maya complained.

"They're cars, but also robots." There were excited hand motions to help explain. Also mother hand dodging. He was well versed in mother dodging already. Luckily the bus was stopped for a bit of loading and unloading. "There's a hellabocter. His name is Blades and he's the best one."

"Rowan. On your bottom."

"Chase is a police car."

"Rowan."

"Yes, ma'am!" He jumped and plopped onto his seat. Maya tried very, very hard not to roll her eyes because he clearly had heard her, but until she busted out the mom voice, he did not feel compelled to obey. "You can be Boulder 'cause you're big. He's a Rescue Bot. The green one."

"That's pretty high praise. You made the real team, Cafas. So which one is Sam?" Maya asked, honestly curious. It was a good gauge on where people stood on Rowan's personal scale.

"Uhm. Well, Sam is more like Chase. Or. No the fireman. He doesn't go tch-chee-chee-chee-chuu." Rowan folded himself up. Clearly, he had just transformed.

"Sam's one of the humans?"

"Yeah. The fireman that likes the ladies."

"Pffffffft!" What was that? Out of the mouths of babes?

The bus rolled to a stop at the park. It was time to collect everyone and exit the bus.

"Yes!"

An unclear mutter behind him sounded like maybe he shouldn't have asked. Rowan seemed excited though. Cafas clearly had no idea what he was doing. Should he not ask other questions like that? It seemed like Rowan liked Rescue Bots though, and wasn't he meant to ask him about things he liked?

"Sit down,"

>"They're cars, but also robots."

Rowan was not sitting down. He was also dodging Maya like Cafas' drinking had wished it could. He might have a future as a martial artist with moves like that. Not that he was really old enough to be thinking about that.

>"There's a hellabocter. His name is Blades and he's the best one."

"Rowan. On your bottom."

>"Chase is a police car."

"Rowan."

Cafas refrained from flinching. Mum voice had that effect years after he'd even seen his mother. Would he get that voice for having set Rowan off? He hoped not, it felt like this was exactly the sort of thing he was meant to do.

>"Yes, ma'am!"

Cheeky bugger jumped back into his seat. Cafas gave him a smirk and sly wink. He did his best to keep it hidden from Maya. He had a soft spot for cheekiness. Probably because he didn't have to put up with it himself. He imagined it would wear thin then. Wait, should he not be winking? That really was undermining Maya's authority. Damn it Cafas!

>"You can be Boulder 'cause you're big. He's a Rescue Bot. The green one."

"That's pretty high praise. You made the real team, Cafas. So which one is Sam?"

Praise or observation?

>"Uhm. Well, Sam is more like Chase. Or. No the fireman. He doesn't go tch-chee-chee-chee-chuu."

That was an excellent impersonation of the transformation sound, in Cafas' opinion. Couldn't have said it better himself.

"Sam's one of the humans?"

>"Yeah. The fireman that likes the ladies."

"Pffffffft!"

Cafas tried hard to keep a straight face. Maybe he'd turn the topic away from that one. If for no other reason than to avoid laughing at Sam the next time he saw him. He got the feeling Sam didn't think much of him to start with. "So which one are you?"

Cafas typed quickly in his phone, listening to Rowan, as the bus pulled into the park stop. It looked like Boulder transformed into a bulldozer. He was also, as Rowan had observed, massive. Pretty much a square. Cafas liked to think he wasn't quite that square, but hey, he'd take the compliment.

So is that like, my permanent position or what? How does this work?

Cafas pulled the basket back into his hand, feeling a lot better about this whole picnic than when they'd set off. He stood and offered a hand to Rowan, as clearly this counted as near a road. Maya might just have to walk herself to the park. Cafas looked back at her for some indication of how he was doing as they all stepped off the bus. His smile was a lot less nervous than before.

The weather seemed to be holding up nicely. Autumnal, but in that pleasant crunchy leaves and perfect temperatures way. The smell of pumpkin spice drifted with the smog from nearby Starbucks and bakeries alike.

"Okay, we need to pick a spot to be Rescue Bots base! Where do you think?" The question was addressed to Rowan but slightly pointed towards Maya. IF there was something he did know, it was that Mom always had veto rights.

His eyes had calmed down to a light blue. Whether Maya's presence or the evidence that this wasn't so hard he couldn't tell, but something was really bringing his heart rate down.

Which one was Rowan?

"Blades! I fly like my mom. Thwump thwump thwump. Way so high up the sky. Up in the top."

Maya's phone sounded against her leg and she left Rowan to explain about clouds and how someday he might be one.

"Goose." Maya ran her fingers into Cafas' hair and gave it a tug. It wasn't as if she wasn't right there. They could probably have a whole conversation out loud and Rowan wouldn't notice at the rate he was going.

He assigns bots moment by moment. When I make him mad, he might revoke my spot on the team.
The term you're about to learn is THREENAGER.

She was slower to type and so Maya had to scramble to catch up before the bus took off.

> "...Rescue Bots base! Where do you think?"

"By the playground! There's a slide that's yellow! C'mon, c'mon!"

"I have a blanket in the basket so we don't have to have a table." Maya was trying to lay her shirt flat and having issues because there was nothing to keep it there. Well. No. There was. It just wasn't wanting to stay instead of collapsing where she had concentrated all her current incorporeallness. Maya had found that by keeping it condensed around her midsection was most ideal. The kinds of wardrobe malfunctions that happened that way were more an irritation than an embarrassment.

At least she had the hands to fuss with it. Rowan was practically dragging Cafas along and his other hand was taken up with basket. It was entirely endearing. Maya trailed behind them, swinging her arms all the way.

"This! Right here is the best day ever!" Rowan chose a spot under a tree. That had the benefit of shade, but also roots.

"If we move a little over this way, when play on the playground," Maya yawned, "we can still see you from here. What do you think?"

"Yes. I said right there. I have good ideas."

He assigns bots moment by moment. When I make him mad, he might revoke my spot on the team.
The term you're about to learn is THREENAGER.

Threenager? That didn't sound like a positive thing. Did it go with the previous text? Maybe, it seemed to make sense. He read texts through a conversation about clouds, half listening. In all fairness, he'd do the same to an adult if Maya was texting him.

>"By the playground! There's a slide that's yellow! C'mon, c'mon!"

"I have a blanket in the basket so we don't have to have a table."

Yellow slides and blankets? This really was a picnic. Cafas maintained pace with Rowan, stumbling just enough to pretend he was struggling to do so. He'd seen that in a movie. Or had it been a parent at a park? No wait, his dad had done that.

For the first time in a long time, Cafas genuinely missed his parents. How they'd been before they'd found out about his mutation.

Keeping the basket from swaying too much under such an unstable gait was proving difficult. Cafas hoped there was nothing terribly fragile inside its wickery shell. He was eventually led to the base of a tree. Autumn had taken hold of the leaves. Frankly it was rustly and beautiful.

>"This! Right here is the best day ever!"

The shade and the tree, he wasn't wrong. The atmosphere was lovely. The ground seemed... Uncomfortable. Cafas might have just gone with it, but Maya jeopardized her place on the Rescue Bot team to save them.

"If we move a little over this way, when play on the playground, we can still see you from here. What do you think?"

>"Yes. I said right there. I have good ideas."

It appeared she had gotten lucky? Cafas didn't know, really. He was running on texts worth of information, so he could be entirely wrong. "Well then better set up the base!"

Cafas dropped Rowan's hand and grabbed the blanket from the basket, setting the latter on the ground. With a flourish (and then a couple more goes because he didn't often go picnicking) the blanked was spread on the ground.

"There, perfect!" It was not. It had a weird wave in it and one of the corners had folded back on itself. It was as perfect as Cafas was likely to get it though. He smiled all the same, because it was turning out to be a really good day.

Though he had been called a goose.

"So, Mom, what's the deal, eat then play or play then eat?" Mom? Should he go with Maya?

Perfect? It totally was. Rowan threw himself on the blanket and pushed out the weird lump with his pretend bulldozer hands whooping when the blanket made some muffled crunching sounds. Maya fixed the folded edge with a hand before she took a seat to remove her shoes. Clearly shoe removal was optional since she was letting Rowan stomp all over the blanket with his still on.

"It's nice out." She smiled and dug open the basket once Cafas had put it in reach. Maybe it was her imagination, but the sun was coming in at just the right angle to make things feel picturesque. The air was fresh and peppery with fall. Probably chilly. Should she have brought Rowan's jacket? She was so bad at the temperature stuff.

> "So, Mom, what's the deal, eat then play or play then eat?"

Maya didn't bat an eye at being called Mom. "Are you hungry, Rowan?"

"I want to play! There are kids in there already." Now that he knew it was an option to play first, he probably wasn't going to want to eat at all. Maya huffed a sigh.

"Go play for- hey. Ro. Look at me. No. Look me in the eyes." She made sure she had his full attention. He'd started to sprint off at the first promise of play. "Five minutes. I'll make you a plate and then you need to come at least try to eat something, mkay?"

"Uhg. Ten minutes."

"Seven." She countered.

"Deal."

"I'm setting a timer on my phone!" She called after Rowan's back with a smile on her face. She was totally setting a timer right. this. second.

"There's a thermos of coffee in there." This totally counted for their 100 coffees thing. Maya mashed her screen with her thumbs a few more times. Haptic touchscreens were partially heat-based. Darn thing just wasn't responsive every time she hit it with her chilly hands.

Finally, timer set, she tossed the phone away onto the blanket and went about grabbing a paper plate for Rowan. Apple sauce definitely. He'd put that in himself. Hmm...

Cafas happily watched the bartering. Well, partly watched, partly tried to decide if he was going to wear shows on the blanket or not. Rowan was, Maya wasn't. Well, he was an adult, at least in theory, so he went with no shoes. No socks either? He didn't want them to get all dirty. Those came off too.

"There's a thermos of coffee in there."

He'd barley sat down after all that deliberation. Cafas shuffled a little closer to the basket and reached in. The thermos wasn't too hard to find. It even had mugs for a lid. He figured he'd need the coffee given Rowan's energy levels. "Thanks. You want one? You know where in here the coconut milk is?" Back to rummaging.

Why could he never find anything in a bag or box or basket?

Maya was in on the basket action quickly. She seemed to have some trouble with the touch screen devices. Probably something to do with how cold she always was. That's how those screens worked, right? It couldn't all be pressure, surely. He'd never looked into it. Maybe next time he was nervously reading in the library he'd hit up the technology section.

Cafas used Maya's proximity, while they both peered into the basket, to plant a quick kiss on her. "You okay? You're not normally so yawny." Not that it wasn't perfectly reasonable to be tired from time to time. Cafas was just concerned. Maya didn't need to be spreading herself any thinner. He couldn't imagine how busy she already was.

"Aha!"

Cafas had found the coconut milk! That led to a quick pouring of coffees, stirring of milk into Maya's, and then gently placing her mug on a seemingly flat bit of ground. "What's that, ninety seven to go?" The metal manipulator sipped his coffee, still pretty dang hot, with a smile. Mansion coffee, how he'd so nearly forgotten it.

Over by the playground children laughed and yelled, though they likely thought it to be speaking at a normal volume. There was indeed a yellow slide, Cafas noted. He also noted some concerned looking parents, but no-one doing or saying anything. That was at least a relief for the time. "He seems like a good kid. I hope he likes me."

> "Thanks. You want one?"

"Definitely." Maya reached around him to nudge a small sealed container of milk into Cafas' path and was rewarded when he 'found' it. It put a little smile on her face when he did.

"I did last night's watch. It's not like anything happened and I sure don't want my schedule to get all flopped around so it's not a big deal." She glanced up to check on Rowan and then shrugged and kept compiling options for her kid's lunch. Cafas tended the drinks.

Grapes. Rowan would never, ever turn those down. She pulled out a bagged sandwich and laid half onto the paper plate she'd set out then kept the rest of the bag with her. A couple chips and he was probably taken care of.

Maya straightened up on her knees once she was finished with the basket and stretched. She used the extra height to glance out over toward the playground until she'd confirmed that her kiddo had made it. He was talking animatedly with a boy who looked only marginally older. He was not shy in the least. It looked like they were inventing some elaborate pretend game that involved running up the slide instead of sliding down it.

Had they been alone and had she the energy, she might have fussed at him for it. For now, she just let it go. The playground wasn't so busy that they boys were going to get clocked by someone trying to use the slide in the right way. Heck. It wasn't even the only slide attached to that playground.

> "What's that, ninety seven to go?"

She grinned at that and accepted her cup. "Plenty left, though we are tearing through them at a pretty steady clip." Maya settled herself against Cafas still facing the playground so they could both chat and keep an eye out. He made for a great chair back. She wrapped both hands around her plastic cup and pretended that the heat was radiating down her arms. She remembered what that felt like.

> "He seems like a good kid. I hope he likes me."

"Well? I mean, he's 3 so you've got time if you need it. I read something that said he's only just now starting to form his first permanent memories. He'll probably only remember a few highlights of me once I'm gone." She'd cried buckets and buckets when she'd first thought of that. Now it was just a passing truth.

"Peanutbutter and jelly?" She waggled the half sandwich at Cafas brightly.

"Plenty left, though we are tearing through them at a pretty steady clip."

Cafas thought the clip was pretty reasonable. Plus, it kept him sober, which despite making him nauseous, the on again off again tremors, and the headaches, he actually appreciated. The nagging desire to drink was still pretty massive. Maya silenced it well.

Her slight weight against him even let Cafas ignore those symptoms a bit too.

"Well? I mean, he's 3 so you've got time if you need it. I read something that said he's only just now starting to form his first permanent memories."

Cafas didn't feel like he needed it so far, but it was comforting to know that the time was there. It would make a relationship with Maya so much the better if Rowan liked him.

"He'll probably only remember a few highlights of me once I'm gone."

"Peanutbutter and jelly?"

That seemed pretty heavy to be followed by an offer of sandwich. Avoidance tactic? Was he not meant to pursue it further? Probably. "Sure, what's the jelly?" But he was Cafas, not someone with actual sense. He stroked Maya's hair with the back of his fingers in what was meant to be a comforting way.

"I've been punched in the head more times than I can count, I still remember like, five and six pretty well. You've still got a couple years, right?" His tone was delicate, even if his wording wasn't overly. The thought that Rowan only have a few highlights of Maya didn't sit right in his mind. He deserved better, and so did Maya. Cafas sipped his coffee and accepted the half sandwich.

Nomph.

Grape. Truly the American Special. Cafas had started taking grape jelly for granted, before the publicity touring had taken his overseas so frequently. You couldn't get the stuff anywhere else, pretty much. Now he appreciated it all the more. The combination of the sugar and the caffeine hit his system like nitrous oxide hits an engine.

She exhaled through her nose when Cafas mentioned getting punched in the head. The air skated across her coffee and sent back the most delicious smells. Coffee was such a weirdly comforting thing. It was a wonder she hadn't liked it when she was younger.

"I don't know if it's fair to him, you know. I considered adoption. I could get him to somebody who would be there for him for longer, but I-" wasn't expecting to have to blink back tears already. Maya sighed, frustrated with herself. "I'm just too selfish for that. I like him." The timer beeped and Maya sighed again for a whole new set of reasons.

She loved him, but he was also exhausting. Maya passed the phone to Cafas so he could make it stop beeping.

"Rowan." She set her coffee aside and got to her feet fully intent on coercing Rowan with grapes. The playground was close enough that a good spit would hit the gravel. She hadn't been too worried since they were so close. But now... "Ro?"

She glanced at Cafas and then took a few ginger steps toward the play equipment, eyes scanning. "Rowan?" It wasn't full blown panic. Not yet.

"Surprise!" He popped his little arm out from the open viewport on one of the tubes. "Here I am!"

"I-" Maya stopped and covered her face for a breath caught between relief and irritation. "Thank you." She recovered, over bright and so glad that children could not distinguish between genuine and forced cheer. "Thank you for answering. Okay. The timer sounded. Come on. Let's go eat before Cafas gobbles it all up."