"All I'm saying is that work just hasn't been as frequent since I went natural, and I think it might be that I'm not as showy of a token mutant." Cafas shone the beam of his flashlight out the fence, cutting through the darkness and lighting up... Nothing at all. He should have been glad, but a threat might have actually taken his mind off the matter. Maya had to be sick of hearing about it. He was certainly sick of talking about it. Still, it plagued his mind. What if that really was it? Had he just been a token mutant to wave around yelling "Look how inclusive we are!"? It hadn't seemed that likely at first, but as time chugged on he couldn't help but feel it might just be true.

Satisfied there was nothing to see lurking in the grass, he shut off the flashlight beam. For a brief moment he was completely blind as his eyes struggled to adjust. He hated that bit. Luckily it was brief, and he was back to watching the breath mist from his mouth. He didn't know what sort of temperature forty was for late April, but he did not approve. This sort of thing wouldn't fly in California. He added that to the pro-move column.

Is there even a point now?

He sighed, and turned to face Maya, dimly illuminated in the light of the half moon. It suited her. "I'm sorry, I know I go on about it." Cafas' mouth quirked apologetically. "Go on, who's leaving dirty clothes everywhere today?" Apologetic quirk became loving smirk, and Cafas tried to put away his worrying long enough to actually listen. He owed her a good, long rant on that front. "Come on, I know it's someone." He poked, teasing the brewing rant to the surface. There were times those rants could carry them through half a patrol. True, it took some goading to achieve, but he was only working with what was already there.

The great June rants should be fun. Can't blame her, teenagers really do stink.

"Or should we maybe talk about tomorrow? What's our game plan? You saw Ro today, I don't know that I can keep up with him a full day. We should at least schedule water breaks, maybe some orange slices." Cafas was only half kidding. He'd needed a nap before the patrol, and he was hardly the napping type. It seemed likely he'd be propped up on caffeine the whole day, and that didn't do wonders for his patience. He really didn't want to snap at Rowan on his birthday. He also didn't want to be a boring and tired lump. Rowan would want him to be energetic and fun, and Cafas really hated to disappoint the kid.

Not the hair thing again. They were both suffering for their normalcy. Maya could now ride the bus and not be recognized. The horror! She tried her best to keep the eye rolling at bay. Wasn't "normal" what so many mutants wished they'd had? Wasn't stardom always short-lived? Those were all selfish thoughts, she knew. He didn't do it for the money or the fame. He did it for the challenge. Because it was fun. Because not having a job made them both feel like a drain on society, despite their X-tendancies.

"I'm kind of glad you're not on jobs back to back." That was easy enough to admit. It wasn't like, even on the off chance she got to come along, that when he was working, they got to spend time together. So selfish. She’d been told she was allowed.

Though she knew they should keep their hands free in case a fight broke out, Maya felt she could get away with slipping her right into his left for a quick squeeze.

> "Go on, who's leaving dirty clothes everywhere today?"

Oh. Right to the heart. Maya shook her head and chuckled. ”The littles. It’s always the littles. They need a mom, but the best I can be is their housekeeper. Though that anthro kid with the wolf hair best watch himself.” Maybe because he was a teen, she expected more. ”Clogging drains is above my paygrade.”

She had joked to get around a direct answer because some of the kids he adopted unofficially were included in the mess makers… Maya folded her arms obstinately despite the cajoling.

> "Or should we maybe talk about tomorrow?”

Maya stepped over a circle of mushrooms just in case fairies turned out to be real.

These were the birthdays Rowan was going to remember. ”I have a few presents hiding in my X-locker. I’m glad you said something. I still need to wrap—” She put her hand on his arm and stopped to listen.

A cat meandered through, gave them both a disdainful sniff, and turned to show them both that it had other, better things to do.

”I invited all the kids that he knows and there’s gonna be a bounce house on the Mansion lawn that we probably won’t get the safety deposit back on.” Because really, what were the odds that it would survive a mansion full of kids? But what better way to get all that sugar high worked out?

”Did you… uh. Should I put your name on some of the things I picked out?”

Anthro wolf? Which one? Why was that such a common mutation? Why animals? It was one of the great mysteries of mutant kind. Cafas focused on that, rather than the possibility that it was maybe Adder that Maya was referring to. He didn't need that argument again. He had spoken to him, he had tried being stern. It just didn't help. Teenagers were impossible. Besides, hers was hardly better, just French.

No, I'm not getting into it.

>>”I have a few presents hiding in my X-locker. I’m glad you said something. I still need to wrap—”

A cat wandered into view, all attitude and aloofness. Cafas squinted suspiciously. Maybe it was a little paranoid, but he didn't trust any animal that was so... Calley like. It was certainly a little crazy to flip the cat off. He resisted the urge.

"Yeah that bouncy castle is a write off for sure. They probably know that already." The address was a real tip off. He doubted the company was under any illusions about the survival odds. If the deposit hadn't been doubled Cafas would be surprised. It's what he would have done, and he was actually affiliated with the mansion.

>>”Did you… uh. Should I put your name on some of the things I picked out?”

Cafas was not incredulous at the suggestion he might have forgotten Rowan's birthday. Nor was he hurt. At least not that he was going to let on. He had to assume Maya meant it in the best possible way. It was true he had been a little caught up in life for a while. It was probably Maya's way of saving him from disappointing Rowan. That was definitely not something Cafas could deal with gracefully. There would be tears, and maybe even Rowan would cry.

"No need, I got myself to a few stores. Actually mostly I went online, it's so much easier. I might have actually gone overboard..." To understate things. What had started as a couple of Lego sets had quickly spiralled into the complete Minecraft Lego set collection. Plagued by indecision in the face of his options, he'd just thought it safer to buy all of them. That way he couldn't be wrong. It had come in just shy of $1000. Cafas received a call from the credit card folks to confirm that one. In a way it was reassuring.

"Out of interest, how much would you say is too much?"

It was totally understandable that neither of them trusted a cat. The worst they got was an eye full of cat butt. If it was Calley, he wasn't feeling too vindictive today. Either way, Maya was now on yellow alert. She'd taken a claw or two in her time as first retainer. Even if she'd lost that position as Calley's friend, it had served its purpose in teaching her how to detect a crouching cat with hidden claws.

She didn't float the idea of presents past Cafas carefully because she'd thought he had forgotten. It was impossible to forget when Ro boasted about how close his birthday was, daily. She was more cautious because it was hard knowing what a kid liked when that kid's likes changed every five days or so. If anyone knew, though, it was Cafas. He had stepped so completely into the role of dad that's what Rowan called him. And so she was more worried that he'd gone overboard.

> "I might have actually gone overboard..."

Maya was careful to study their surroundings. If Cafas thought he'd overdone it...

"We're returning half." She didn't even know how much he'd bought and already she'd decided. "Or saving some to give out later. Christmas, maybe." She was NOT going to raise a child any more spoiled than she had to. He probably wanted time with them more than he wanted stuff anyway.

"He says he wants chocolate cake, chocolate icing. I was thinking cupcakes." And she was probably cutting it close since she hadn't ordered any yet.Of course there was that kid who made a chocolate cake almost every day...

"Lets go with the second option." Never knew when something was going to become a super rare set. Lego liked to stop producing things, or so he had gathered from trying to find that damn mountain one. "If nothing else, I like lego. Kinda hoping we can build it together, drag him away from the computer and see if I can't get him into building things with his hands." Was he pushing his own values on Rowan with that? Cafas was a little self-conscious about being too cliche step dad. He didn't want to end up with Rowan resenting him later in life the way all the teenagers on TV did.

Yeah, but you have to foster practical joys right?

"Oh, yeah, I bought lego. Was it always so expensive? I really took it for granted as a kid." He suspected he probably owed his parents more thanks for the amount of lego he'd been given.

Huh... Haven't thought anything nice about them in a while.

>>"...I was thinking cupcakes."

"Cupcakes sounds good, easy portion control. Though I guess with cupcakes that probably isn't most people's first concern." Cafas shrugged his jacket into a more comfortable position. Chocolate on chocolate sounded about right. Not that Cafas could say anything about that, his own tastes were hardly refined when it came to cake. Honestly, it sounded good. It was just that... "Can Ro eat chocolate? I mean, I know he can I guess, but you know." The X-man's eye roved the dark, probing for signs of trouble as best he could while tracking his metal sense. Never hurt to check the fence while they were out.

Treeline approaching. Man that wood gives me the creeps. Not to mention bad memories.

> "If nothing else, I like lego."

One of their greatest bonds. Though Cafas had been a little upset after building their first lego castle together, an almost 4-hour endeavor that Ro ruined in less time than it took the metal manipulator to get them both a glass of milk. That was to be expected when the adult had more invested. It was a wonder that Cafas still liked the bricks after stepping on more than a few last night.

"We should maybe work on cleaning them up a bit better." Maya was tempted to climb one of the trees in the approaching line. It would give her a better vantage point to put context to the feelers she had out on the wind.

Was Lego always so expensive?

"For as long as I've been buying them they have been." Which, admittedly, started some time 2 or 3 years ago...

> "Can Ro eat chocolate?"

Maya stopped short of the impending trees. Ohhhh noooo. She rubbed her eyebrows for a moment and then smeared her hand down her face.

Confession time.

"He's been getting these little red bumps on his legs and sometimes his lower back. I just thought maybe his clothes were rubbing or... or hair? You know? Like other anthro kids..." It was bound to happen, it was just a matter of time. She was thinking it might be early to be sprouting hair, but then there were the ears and... "Is that allergies? He's never thrown up."

The mom guilt spiral was a difficult one to stop. Maya should read up more on dog physiology, but... she had a Rowan. Not a dog. They were different. He was still human... or, mutant. Would dog type matter?

Boy did they ever need to work on packing up. Something in him brain remembered someone mentioning using a dropsheet. Probably something on Seddit or viewtube. Either way, that sounded like a good way to start. It did come lacking organisation, and would undoubtedly make rebuilding anything ten times harder. Probably wasn't a thought that would occur to Rowan. It had never mattered to Cafas at that age, that was for sure.

He's not gonna rebuild the sets properly, why worry?

The X-man's eye darted back and forth through the deep murk of the wood. Internally he was trying to push down the usual paranoia he felt going into those trees. It was a tired routine, yet one he was forced to repeat every time. Preparing for the plunge into the true darkness, short sight lines, and deceptive shadows, he took a deep breath. Able to focus externally again he noticed the metal signatures from Maya's effect had stopped moving. A flash of adrenaline hit his system. The X-man spun on the balls of his feet, eyes sweeping his partner for any sign of what was wrong.

No blood, no assailant, no visible injuries...

As it turned out, he had over reacted. Maya had simply stopped to speak. Cafas straightened out of his coiled spring stance and stowed his flashlight. Quite against patrol protocol, Cafas stepped in and drew Maya into a hug. He knew the mom guilt when he heard it. "Hey, hey, come on, it's fine. I don't know really if that's allergies, maybe, maybe not. We should just monitor it now we've thought of it. We're raising a physiologically abnormal kid, and for years you did that on your own, and did a wonderful job. You can't be expected to think of everything." He planted a kiss into Maya's hair for good measure, then slid down her slightly to get an arm under her, pulling her up so he could comfortably nestle his face in the crook of her neck. Even solid and whole Maya was light. It always caught him off guard. "Let him have his cake, clearly he's not too allergic if he's any. You want me to try and organise that, or do you want something sensible?"

Bet they have some really intense cakes out there...

Cafas' reaction reminded Maya that they really should have been patrolling instead of planning out their next few days. Or, maybe it was an indication that it was okay to double up on their shifts. That way when one person went down a silly spiral, the other was there to still do the job. Or something.

He all but melted down from warrior to needing a hug.

"But I have to be the one to think of everything." There was nobody else... except Cafas. Who had thought of this. She didn't give him enough official credit. He'd done everything to make himself an invaluable part of her life and when he'd asked for something in return, she'd said no. In front of the press.

What if that made him less desirable? His own girlfriend refusing to be a long term life partner? Wasn't that a red flag or didn't that say something about something?

Cafas bent at the knee to pick her up and Maya obliged by wrapping her legs and arms around him. Totally against protocol, but she laid her head down on his shoulder and he buried his face in her neck. They made a mutant lolly with Cafas' legs as the stick.

What was she holding out for?

This was a happy for now which was infinitely more realistic than happily ever after...

"We'll keep an eye on him." She gave Cafas a squeeze because she didn't deserve the back up, but here he was anyway. "And if by organise, you mean make at home after taking Ro to pick out a mix? Suuuure. I can't say no to that. It's you're planning something with LEDs and a smoke machine, that's a hard no. Maybe you guys can go crazy when he's older." At least she didn't have to worry about no one showing up. With the party at the Mansion, curiosity (if nothing else) would draw the kids outside.

"Dibs on his tenth, that one's all mine." One more kiss and he set Maya back down. They really did need to keep going.

---

Two hours sleep had perhaps been an overly ambitious goal. Not that he'd had time to reflect upon it since breakfast, he'd been busy shopping for way too much cake mix with Rowan. Cafas stared blankly into his coffee, yawning and blinking tired tears out of his eyes. He wasn't entirely sure what cup this one was, which was saying something, because he just couldn't shake the habit of counting.

"I wanna mix too!"

Rowan's incredibly loud voice shook Cafas back into reality. He blinked a few more times and took a quick gulp of too hot coffee. It burned the whole way down, and he regretted his impatience. "Sure mate, reckon you're old enough to help." X-dad smiled as enthusiastically as he could, "Jump on up so you can reach." Rowan didn't even hesitate to ignore the no butts on benches rule. With just the barest bit of assistance he'd scrambled up to sit next to the mixing bowl. "Alright, you gotta hold on tight, yeah?" Cafas took Ro's hand and put it on the mixer. The excited yep and vigorous nodding probably should have set off warnings, but Cafas let go of hand and mixer.

Ah...

Several choice words spattered across Cafas' internal monologue, much as chocolate cake batter spattered half way up the kitchen wall when Ro almost immediately lost control of the beater. Startled, the young birthday boy flailed backwards, kicking the mixing bowl the opposite direction, and dropping the running beaters. Cafas had Rowan in one arm, coffee in the other, and the bowl and beaters floating aloft, before he was fully aware of what had happened. Brain catching up, and startled fully awake, Cafas took in the scene, and then broke down laughing.

Metal bowl was a good move.

Rowan, uncertain, took his cues from dad. He was laughing too by the time he'd been set back on the bench. Cafas tousled his hair and grabbed the mixer. He switched it off quickly, but he suspected he'd just burned out the motor when he'd grabbed it by the wire coils. He'd been basically done anyway. Cafas ejected the beaters, and held one out to the chocolate splattered Rowan, still shaking with laughter. "You know what bud, I think we just don't tell Mom about this one, deal?"

"Yeah, no telling mommy!" Ro grabbed the beater offered, and had it half way to his mouth when his eyes went wide, looking straight past Cafas. "Um..."

Their arrangement had started some time back when Maya was recovering from lead poisoning. Rowan was sleeping in more and more these days, but "sleeping in" could only be applied as a loose term. He'd woken at 5 am on the dot for the first 3 or 4 years. Now, it was more like 6. Which was better, but still too early after a late night patrol. Add in birthday excitement and it was definitely pre-dawn when a 6 years old Rowan poked Cafas in the arm. He knew exactly which of his x-parents was less grumpy in the morning.

And so, at 6 am Maya blinked awake to a cold bed and a note.

Gone for cake.

She allowed herself a moment to prepare for the worst— Sparklers? Fireworks? Goodness, Cafas liked to explode things. It made the ever-flammable Maya nervous.

And it made her get out of bed. The sooner she tracked them down, the sooner she could hedge Rowan's expectations about how much fire there was going to be.

She took a quick, hot shower because people would be looking today. She had to dress up at least a little. They would say that they weren't, but they would. And she picked out a change for clothes for Rowan later because there was no way whatever Cafas let him wear was going to be picture appropriate. And since she was on a roll, she pulled new clothes for Cafas too. It was a pretty safe bet.

Finally ready to tackle the day, Maya trotted down the stairs.

She was greeted with a strange balancing act: Rowan in one arm, the bowl hovering, and though the cabinets were brown, they weren't chocolate brown. Except, now they were.

"I'll get a—whup!" She'd taken a step into the kitchen and her ballet flat went sliding. Maya slammed both hands on the counter and managed to splat into more than a few speckles of chocolate batter.

Rowan was beside himself with giggle snorts.

There was a surprising amount of batter strewn about, now that she was looking.

"How many cakes are we baking today?" Her original goal, the drawer with the linens, was reached with careful prancing. It might take more washcloths than were in there in order to clean this all up. There was plenty of time until the party.

He was too late to stop the slip, and far too late to stop Maya walking in. Cafas simply stood with his tongue entwined with a battered beater, waiting to see how much trouble he had gotten himself in to. Maya was hardly the cheeriest morning person even before embarrassing and potentially painful slips.

"Y'a'wighe?"

The genuine concern was undercut by the line of cake batter he'd managed to leave on his face, and the fact he had not stopped licking chocolate from the beater. If Maya hadn't seemed so fine, he might have even felt guilty. By the time he'd carefully navigated the slippery minefield to Maya's side, she'd already collected herself. Didn't even need the help he'd come to offer.

Rowan on the other hand, didn't seem to feel any concern, nor any guilt. Running high on sugary cereal and childish glee, his laughter filled the kitchen and rang painfully in Cafas' ears. His own chuckles having subsided, he was realising it was far too early for that much noise. He signalled Ro as much, wordlessly, as Mom skated her way to the linens. He at least tried. It was commendable.

>>"How many cakes are we baking today?"

"Just a coup-"

"SIX! LIKE ME!"

Cafas smiled his best, toothiest, most nervous "please-don't-kill-me." smile as Rowan sing-song chanted "six cakes".

"Probably closer to three now?" He offered, eyes dancing around all the spilled and spattered batter. It was not a strategy he thought would work, but he had to try. He didn't really want to get scolded in front of Rowan.

Outside the door, D.J. Roomba trundled down the hall, "Live Louder" playing at an ironically considerate volume. Cafas did a tiny on the spot dance shuffle. Defuse defuse defuse.

"I'm okay." She could be careful now that she knew there were slippery landmines. For a moment, she was torn between irritation and bemusement, but knowing that it was Rowan's birthday, she decided to let it go. It was better to be patient and kind and keep the attitude from spiralling out of control on a birthday day. Even if it was an impressive mess.

Maya made her way to the drawer and pulled out three— no, six towels while she tried to walk that line between laughter and frowning. It was good that the drawer put her back to the boys since their answer about the number of cakes firmly tipped her over toward laughter.

She couldn't let Ro think it was okay to make a mess in a shared community space without cleaning it up. But SIX cakes? She couldn't help but snort and duck her head a bit while her shoulders shook in silent laughter. There might not be six cake's worth of batter left in the bowl after this.

"Let me tell you something." Rowan began his lecture as usual. He didn't seem to mind that as he gestured with his mixer beater, yet another bit of batter plopped onto the ground. "When you are making your own birthday cake for YOUR own birthday, you get to make it however you want to. Round. Or square. With sprinkles. And six of them like me. That's what me and dad decided. And it's a rule that the birthday boy decides. It's a rule, mom."

He had prepared a decent defense. "It is a rule," she conceded before tossing one of the towels onto Rowan's face so that it draped down his protruding muzzle. "It's also a rule that you have to clean up after yourself AND that you're gonna take a bath before the party."

His "Aww maaaan" was cut short when Maya decided to pick her way across the chocolatey battlefield in order to give her two most favorite people a hug. She wasn't going to avoid the mess. So she might as well embrace it.

"I need your help, okay?" One kiss for Ro— which he wiped off immediately— and one for Cafas.