Ruby's tail began wagging back and forth as she looked at Jamal. she liked bein around him, he made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside. She finished up her pizza before a thought struck her.

"Jamal I didnt ask you if you wanted anything to drink! Do you want anything?" Ruby asked, "we have got strawbery milk."

((Blech my brains a little fried. Tag youre turn.))

Jamal laughed. "You offered me fruit punch like five minutes ago."


"Awww. thats so cute." Daria teased.

Ruby blushed and so did Jamal. "Thats not cool, babygirl." he said calling her by her family nickname. "why are you trying to embarass me?"

Daria laughed walking to get herself a glass of milk. "Wow, Ruby you've got him sprung."

"What does sprung mean?" Ruby asked.

"I am not sprung. I've never been sprung over any girl."

Daria paused for a minute as a flash of a child hood playmate crossed her mind. Jamal used to play with a little girl but she couldn't remember who...or where the girl came from. She shrugged.

"Sprung is when you're crazy over someone." Daria said.

Ruby was still blushing slightly, she forgot things sometimes but it was good that Jamal reminded her in a nice way.

"So...Jamal is crazy over me?"

Jamal blushed slightly before glaring at Daria. "You should have never taught her that. All I asked was if you wanted to hang out sometime.." Jamal put a hand over his own mouth realizing his mistake.

Ruby was blushing like crazy as her fox her flattened to her head. "Does that mean Jamal is Sprung?" Ruby asked

Daria's milk almost flew out of her nose as she laughed.

Jamal glared.

"He asked you out? You asked her out? WOW." Daria exclaimed. "AWW thats so-" Before she could speak her milk rose up and splashed her in the face. She stood there for a minute as Jamal looked at her, deciphering whether he'd gone too far.

Daria smirked and darted forth catching Jamal before he could run away. "Your girlfriend has to come and rescue you now, Jamal." she teased.

"She's not my-stop that!" he cried as Daria gave him a noogie. Ruby laughed at the two. They looked cute and cozy, like famlily was supposed to.

Jamal twisted from Daria's grasp and animated the stools so that they galloped towards Daria.

"I have to admit...thats a little creepy, J." she said as she gave them each a kick and sent them flying across the room. A thought of Tricity crossed her mind.

"Okay. No fighting in doors." she warned. Jamal nodded.

"And stop teasing me."

"I'm sorry...its just so cute!" Daria exclaimed loudly.

"Whats so cute?" Emerald asked walking into the room. She was still not fully healed from Sentinel blast so she was staggering a bit. She wagged her tail back and forth curiously as she looked at Ruby. "How was going into the city?"

Ruby noticed her older sister come in and felt herself relax and tense at the same time. "It was fun! My new friend Jamal saved me from having to go spend money on food." Ruby grinned pointing at Jamal.

"Oh really." Emerald said in a sly tone as she looked over at Jamal with a wolfish grin on her face. "Nice to meet you Jamal I'm Emerald, Ruby's older sister."

Jamal noticed something about Emerald that was screaming 'overprotective sibling alert' "Nice to meet you Emerald." He smiled sweetly glancing at Ruby.

Emerald sat down on one of the stools with a slight flinch from the bruises around her ribs and stomach. "Daria how are you feeling?" Emerald asked in order to break the awkward silence

Mike was on his phone when he came in, but it was the tail end of the conversation, and he snapped it shut without saying anything else. "Good afternoon ladies and gentleman," he said. He kissed Daria as he walked by on his way to the fridge, "And especially you... I hope you packed, or I might need to spoil you more and just drag you off for the week and buy you whatever you want to wear," he teased.

Daria smiled. "My wrist and my ankle are still a bit weak but I'm drugged and and calmed down." she kidded with Emerald. Jamal could tell the two got along pretty well.

That would be good for him and Ruby. He smiled at her and she blushed, twitching her fox ears.

Daria's face lit up as Mike entered. "No I'm not packed but I will be soon." she said. She knew that he knew she'd had to wait until noon of that day to leave the infirmary in the first place. Since then her nose had been buried in the business of the restaurant.

"Where are you going?" Jamal asked. "I just got here."

"Well I didn't know you were coming." Daria laughed. "I'm taking a much needed vacation with the man of my dreams. Mike, meet Jamal, you didn't get intorduced in D.C because he wasn't in the house."

Mike quirked an eyebrow. "More long lost family?" he smiled, offering Jamal his hand. "Good to meet you," he said. He took in the whole scene, chuckling to himself. Almost wouldn't be able to tell we'd had a crisis yesterday if it weren't for the robot parts on the lawn...

"And the fact that everyone is bandaged up?" Sarah said entering.

She locked her eyes on Jamal which Ruby didn't take to very well but was too polite to overreact. "Hi Sarah." she said.

"Hey Ruby!" Sarah said running to Daria and parking herself on the cat girl's lap. "Hi Emerald, Hi..." she trailed off to Jamal.

"The name is Jamal." He said holding out his hand. "I'm Daria's cousin."

Sarah grinned. "Nice to meet you." she glanced at Daria slyly.

Daria shook her head. Too old for you, honey, he's 14.

Mike is 18.

Turning 19!

....... k. Sarah shrugged and went to pur herself some juice.

And you only turned twelve, little dear, so let's stop playing the age game.

"I saw you in the infirmary this morning," she commented idly.

"Yeah, the doc kicked me out at about eight when I woke up. Said that the staff was complaining since I didn't NEED to be there," Mike rolled his eyes.

"And I saw Ms. Tipper in there, she's almost ready to have her little-"

"STOP!" Mike cut a hand out to stop Sarah from saying the baby's gender. "No spoiling the surprise."

Sarah smirked. "Her boyfriend's really cute. And big."

Mike frowned, opening the fridge to take out the orange juice.

Sarah snatched it right out of his hands with a play ful smile, pouring herself a glass and then pouring his. She handed it back to him to put in the fridge again.

"Cute?" Daria said. "Orion?.... I was thinking scary..not cute."

Ruby shrugged. "Cute boyfriends seem to be the trend." She said glancing at Ruby who blushed.

"Why are you out of the loop, Daria?" Ruby teased.

Daria shook her head and teleported Sarah's juice from her hands and into her own.

Sarah pouted before returning to her seat in Daria's lap to drink her juice.

I was thinking more 'unstable' and 'hits really fucking hard' myself, Mike thought to Daria.

"Yeah, why are you out of the loop, Daria? When are you going to get in on this 'cute boyfriend' trend?" he teased, pouring himself a glass and ruffling Sarah's hair, much to her irritation, as he walked by to his seat.

Daria immediately teleported herself from underneath Sarah to Mike's lap. Sarah hit the chair cushion abruptly and barely held onto her juice.

Daria kissed Mike on the forehead. "Eh...all the cute ones are too hard to get and they're so full of themselves." she joked.

Ruby and Jamal laughed, glancing at eachother again.

Sarah was staring intently at her juice.

You okay? Daria asked.

Sarah was having a vision of Jamal on the ground...bleeding and Ruby standing over him, glowing wiht her electricity. It was obvious Jamal was dead and Ruby was very unhappy about it. She relayed the vision to Daria, and Mike immediately saw it as well.

They don't always happen right? she asked Mike.

You only just started having them, so we really don't have much to go on, but I'd assume that there's a lot of room for error.

Mike frowned, though, making a mental note to ask Tricity about mutants who could see the future and how accurate they were. He gave Daria a subtle, concerned look, squeezing her hand, and tried to look harder at the vision Sarah had shown them, to see any signs of time or age.

Daria nodded looking at Jamal with concern.

In the vison, Ruby looked to be about 15 which would mean jamal would be 16. That wasn't very reassuring.

She sighed as Sarah gave her an apologetic look.

Daria, who wasn't consoled herself couldn't console the girl.