>> ”More sass loch ‘at an’ we can dae muir fight photos.”

Booker couldn’t help but smirk at the sass that was thrown down at him. While it was indeed not an easily job hefting the young woman up, he also shouldn’t tease because it was probably most uncomfortable for her. If he made a mistake or lost his grip she would be in for an absolute world of hurt. If anyone was putting themselves on the line for the sake of their fans, it was clear that it was Rebecca here. He would have to keep his teasing to a minimum but, of course, there would be some. There had to be otherwise he wouldn’t be him.

He gave no response to her comment and instead focused on lifting and ensuring that the young woman was safe.

Now of course, this was his sister’s ex-girlfriend. She was attractive, yes, (not to mention the accent), but there were some lines that Booker wouldn’t cross. He would remain the woman’s friend but beyond that there was nothing there. That was probably for the best because where he had to place his hands to ensure that she didn’t get hurt would have made things ten times more awkward if there was a spark between them.

Holding her up, Booker had to keep one firm hand on her cheek and the other on her shoulder. It wasn’t an exact copy of the image that they were trying to replicate but it was close enough. It would have to do because anything else would require either some kind of wire rig or him actually hurling the redhead over his shoulders; as committed as she was to her fans, Booker didn’t think she would appreciate it.

So he lifted and he focused on keeping her held up. Once she was done squirming around in order to get the perfect posture, he made his war face and he could only assume that Rebecca did as well. He could exactly see how she was positioned, but judging by the way she moved, she got into position as best she could. The sounds of surprise from the audience seemed to indicate that they must have done something right because it was followed by a cacophony of phones taking photographs. As invigorating as it was to know that they were doing a good job, truth was that, his arms were getting tired.

>> ”Hoo ye holdin’ up, Atlantean?”

”Oh yeah. Just. Peachy. Hon.”

He smirked. Rebecca must as sensed his quivering arms. A glance over to the person who initially wanted the picture, he voicelessly inquired if she were done and, the second she gave him a nod and an appreciative smile, Booker sighed in relief.

”Alright. You’re coming down.” he said. Carefully he turned his sore arms so that he could start bringing her down. Holding her close to his hard chest, Booker didn’t want to just drop her so he cradled her close to make sure that she was safe the entire way down. Once her feet at set foot, he sighed in relief, his arms still wrapped around her. He held the young woman for probably a second longer than he should have, watching her mismatched eyes for a moment before he spoke. ”Sorry…” he explained. ”…arms are a little sore. And…” he tugged, causing her to jostle closer. ”I…I think my coral bracelets are caught on the back of your costume.”

Totally not awkward.

It was always nice to take a risk and be rewarded, and Rebecca was feeling good about her risk of taking a chance on Booker’s upper body strength. She still firmly believed she could, with her training, beat the crap out of him in a fight, but she was more willing to acknowledge that the fight might be closer than she initially gave him credit for.

She was given fair warning that he was bringing her down, which would be the true test of their “success.” To his credit, Booker was very careful with lowering Rebecca to the ground. He shifted her so he could get his arms around her body, keeping her close for her safety, having her body drag against his torso along the way. It was a little awkward, but she would rather a moment of awkward contact than dealing with the experience of being the human equivalent of a fumbled football bouncing on the hard flooring.

It was a relief to finally feel her flip-flops lightly plopping on the ground, signaling that their little photoshoot was over. Rebecca’s palms were still resting on Booker’s smooth, muscular chest due to their proximity, but she waited patiently for her partner to let her go.

Only, she was kept waiting. Rebecca was already wondering what was wrong when Booker gave her the bad news: they hit a literal snag. His costume bracelets were caught on her swimsuit, which was immediately concerning. Rebecca groaned, hanging her head low, which actually ended up pressing her forehead against Booker’s chest I frustration. ”Ah actually loch thes costume…”

Rebecca did her best not to fidget, hoping there was some way to salvage the situation without her costume being a casualty. She tried to ignore the sounds of cameras still snapping in the background, making her one of the faces that might come up in a quick internet search of Atlantean incest. Can ye maybe jostle it a wee bit? Ah’d loove tae keep thes from being a battle-worn cosplay.” That was assuming the tear would be small; a wardrobe malfunction would be problematic, since Rebecca had nothing but underthings beneath her costume.

Booker sighed. How did he get himself into these situations? Of course he would find himself with his arms stuck around a beautiful woman in an compromising position. He didn’t see Rebecca in that way, though, as she had been growing more and more like a sister to him. Still, it didn’t help that their firm bodies were jammed together and the people around them were snapping photos and wolf whistling towards them. The librarian merely shook his head, glaring in the general direction that he heard those sounds coming from and continued to try and jostle his wrists loose from the woman’s costume. This was going to be tricky.

After a few moments of being unable to get himself free, he informed Rebecca of the situation and she sighed, planting her forehead against his firm chest.

>> ”Ah actually loch thes costume…”

”Yeah…it’s a good one,” he grumbled as he continued to struggle with the damn bracelet.

The problem was that he couldn’t precisely see where the snag was. His wrists were pinned to her costume and whenever he turned his wrists, he feared that he would end up tearing the young woman’s outfit. The last thing he wanted was to embarrass her in the middle of the convention floor with a wardrobe malfunction that was created by yours truly. No, he needed to be more careful and he had to figure a way out of this.

Booker sighed as he strained his wrists a bit more but still came across the same problem over and over again. He needed to figure some at least see what he was working with as looking down over her shoulder simply wasn’t doing it.

>> ”Can ye maybe jostle it a wee bit? Ah’d loove tae keep thes from being a battle-worn cosplay.”

He snickered. ”Trust me, hon, that’s what I’m trying to do,” he sighed. Taking a second to keep from ripping her costume up, he lifted his head and peered around the floor, seeking out some means of help. When a glint of light caught his eye, he sighed in relief. He had a plan. ”Hold on. I think I might have an answer.” He paused for a second to look at her before he rolled his eyes a bit in embarrassment and just muttered a quick ”I’m sorry.”

See, his wrists were pinned down a bit lower on her back but he could move his arms somewhat through the bracelets. So, reaching down as best he could, Booker cleared his throat as he suddenly took a firm hold of both Rebecca’s firm cheeks and lifted her up. Still holding her tight to his body, Booker freed her from the ground and marched along the show floor, much to the amusement of several other cosplayers who all were snapping photos or whistling further. However, Booker had a destination in mind and ignored them.

When he reached his target, Booker stopped in front of another cosplayer, this one dressed like a young man standing in front of a large mirror that was being wheeled along next to him. In the glass there was a copy of him, but this time it was a photoshopped and life-sized print of a female version of him glued to the glass. The X on both costumes immediately gave away who this was.

Booker beamed a smile to them. ’Hey! Great costume! Mirror from the X-Men, right?” he grinned.

The guy nodded. “Thank you! Someone finally got it. Nice to meet you, Atlantean? Um…what’s going on?”

”Oh nothing much. Me and my cousin here could definitely use your superhero paraphernalia though.” He grinned. However, at the blank look on the kid’s face, Booker rolled his eyes. ”Your mirror. Jeez.” He set Rebecca down and peered over her shoulder at the mirror’s reflection to take in the image of his bracelets and the part of her costume he was snagged on. Luckily there didn’t seem to be any damage, it was just a matter of untying the threads that had been looped around his bracelets. He smiled a winning smile to Rebecca. ”I’ll get you outta…well…me in a sec.” He winked and set to work.

Rebecca would have been more worried about the compromising position she was in with Booker in public had she not been emotionally invested in the well-being of her costume. The blue body paint was not used under the costume because it was unnecessary, so if there was a tear, it would reveal the secret of Atlantis Lass’s pale, freckly skin. What an immersion-breaker!

To his credit, Booker was handling her carefully, trying to unhook himself without incident. A lightbulb must have gone off in his head, because the scantily-clad librarian proposed a solution and immediately apologized. Rebecca would have asked what he was saying sorry about, but instead of words, a, ”Yeep!” escaped her lips as she felt a firm grasp on her bottom lifting her back into the air.

Booker moved with purpose, clearly with a plan in mind, but Rebecca was over his shoulder, so she could only see behind them. From her angle, she got to watch in annoyance as people snapped photos with cameras and phones, chuckling at her. ”Fer th’ record, thes’ll be one ay mah muir humiliating con stories,” she grumbled at her captor.

They eventually stopped moving, and Booker started conversing with some other cosplayer. Rebecca strained herself to look over her own shoulder, seeing what was indeed a cosplay of her teammate, Gawain. Booker explained his plan, and it was a clever one: make it easier to see what he was doing with a mirror so they could salvage her costume.

As the tall man finagled his bracelets behind her, Rebecca looked at the cosplayer who was watching them with a perplexed look. ”Nice costume. Ah know them, actually,” she admitted with a smile. It was going to be fun telling Gawain (or Maya, depending on the day she caught them,) about their costumed doppelganger at the convention.

With the aid of a mirror, Booker had managed to undo himself from his entanglement and Rebecca finally felt the strong arms release her. ”Finally,” she said, exasperated, as she stretched out her arms, happy to have them free.

Shooting a look and a smirk at Booker, she figured he was owed a thanks for the care he took in releasing her, butt grab aside. ”That was quick thinking, Atlantean. Maybe a wee bit bold, bit desperate times, richt?” It was a harmless squeeze for the greater good, unless Nessa stumbled on any of the pictures. Even then, it would be Booker’s job to explain the situation to Rebecca’s upset ex-girlfriend.

Yeah, this probably wasn’t the most dignified manner in which he could have rescued Rebecca’s outfit. Lifting her up by her butt, slinging her over his shoulder, and carrying her to a nearby cosplayer may have definitely knocked a few points off the ole dignity meter, but the man did what he had to. He knew the perils that came with cosplaying and having your costume torn or damaged while out on the field was never acceptable. Booker wasn’t about to allow her to go through that trauma. Though, grabbing her ass may have been pushing the line a bit, for the moment he was willing to overlook it.

So, with his captive over his shoulder, Booker had sought out the one cosplayer that he had hoped could help them. While Rebecca grumbled over his shoulder, he muttered a constant stream of ”I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry” over and over in his head so that he could make sure had the exact phrasing practiced out by the time that he got where he was going.

The Mirror cosplayer seemed perplexed but also more than willing to be of assistance. As he set Rebecca down and went to work on trying to unlatch his bracelets from her outfit, he couldn’t help but smirk a little when Rebecca mention to the fan that she knew the real Mirror.

>> ”Nice costume. Ah know them, actually,”

He knew that she was an X-Men, not exactly a point that she kept secret, and he thought it was awesome. To be friends with someone who actually fought crime was just…amazing. Of course he was a little jealous, he had always wanted to be a superhero, but knowing one was just as good, right? He snickered a little bit as he took a moment to peer at the cosplayer and his shocked face.

”Don’t listen to her, she gets a little too into these cosplay things. Thinks she’s a superhero or something.” He gave an impish expression as she glanced to Rebecca, and then back over her shoulder and at the reflective mirror. He always had it.

It only took a few more twists and turns but the man had finally made progress. He could see where on her costume that his bracelets had snagged and it was a doozy. In his attempts to set her down carefully, he had accidentally tangled an edge of them up so bad it looked like some masterful puzzle by the green-clad Puzzler. BUT…he finally succeeded in untying himself and releasing her from his grip.

With a sigh, Booker stepped back, his arms falling tiredly to his sides while Rebecca sighed in satisfaction and stepped back, stretching.

>> ”Finally…That was quick thinking, Atlantean. Maybe a wee bit bold, bit desperate times, richt?”

He snorted and shook his head. Really it was funny that the two of them had never hooked up. Anyone seeing them together would have assumed that they were perfect for one another. But it was just not how Booker saw the young woman. Maybe it was because he had only met her while she was dating his sister, or maybe they just got along in the same manner that siblings got along, but whatever the case, that was not in the cards for them. Still, he have to chuckle good-naturedly at her comment before shaking his head.

”I mean, if you want to spend the entire con latched onto me, it would have been easier for me to have just put you in a papoose.” he said with a grin. ”Probably would have been easier on the costume too.”

Booker knew full-well Rebecca was an X-Man, but he was also not going to miss a chance to bust her chops and pretend she was filled with delusions of grandeur. It was in his nature to give the people close to him a hard time, and even if their friendship was not overly close, it was nice to know it was still a friendship. Life was hard, and having someone like Booker around made it easier to bear. Vanessa could lament about what Rebecca did to her love life, but she was always going to be lucky to have a brother like Book in her life.

She teased the cheeky touching, knowing it was the best way to get her to the mirror quickly, mainly to get a rise out of Booker. He did not disappoint, coming up with the plan B if they could not remove the vlogger from the librarian. Picturing the papoose, Rebecca could not contain her laughter. ”Dornt joke! By th' end ay th' con, bein' carried hither an' thither micht soond appealin'.” Conventions were notorious leg workouts, and Rebecca was sure by the end of the weekend, her feet would know a soreness unlike any other.

Until Sunday, she would take advantage of her painlessness, enjoying the spring in her step. ”Come ain, we hae treasures an' exclusife collectibles tae pursue afair ye gaither sae mony gawkin' admirers, we cannae escape.” They had a weekend of shenanigans and photo ops to look forward to, (though maybe they would hold off on overhead poses going forward,) so it was important to get swag out of the way early. Figurines, hard to find collections of comics, and cool fanart were all up for grabs, and she had a great friend to help her scour the floor for some hidden gems.

Maybe Rebecca could help Booker pick something out to bring back as a peace offering for his sister. Even if Vanessa never knew her hand in it, Rebecca would be glad to prove she felt no hard feelings toward the Bookmans.