It wasn't a particularly high cliff, maybe only a couple stories, but a cliff it was, and nicely wooded. Mike had found it while he had been flying a few days past, and had remembered it for exactly this purpose. It was easy to find flying... not so easy to find walking, so they wouldn't be disturbed.

The cooler turned out to hold various sandwiches (which had evidently taken him quite a while to make. He'd been bored), some cheese and fruit, some smoked salmon he'd swiped from the mansion's cooler and prepared, and some drinks (including, of course, milk).

He spread a blanket he'd towed along on the ground as the contents of the cooler floated out into sight in the cool-for-June air.

Daria was still laughing when they arrived. Partially from delerium and partially because she was so happy. She hugged him.

"You have officially earned the best boyfriend of the month award." Then she saw the contents of the cooler. "Maybe for the year."

"Hell, I'll settle for boyfriend of the DAY, but you've already said it and you can't take it back," he said, hugging her back with a grin. "By the way, have I mentioned how beautiful you look when you're happy lately?"

"Oh honey, this isn't happy, this is sleep deprevity. But...you already said it and you can't take it back." she joked, sitting and pulling him with her. She wasn't hungry yet but she did have a glass of milk since there was none at the zoo.

"No, but seriously, I love Kit-Kat. With her and you and Sarah, I'll never be sad again." she smiled. "I've got a whole family now. And we'll keep Dafi as a pet cuz I'm not a dog person."

"I'd say we should get a cat, but that might be a little... odd?" he grinned, sitting next to her. The food floated back into the cooler so that it could stay cold, but remained easily accessible inside it. "So... 'Mommy?'"

Daria sipped the milk and looked at him over the rim of the cup before she answered.

"I didn't know what to do. She asked if she could call me that and I said yes. She misses her parents alot, Mike." she pointed to the diamond necklace around her neck. "I almost didn't take this and she threw a fit. It belonged to her mother." she looked down.

"That's kinda sick isn't it? Like i need to be loved so much that I play on a little girl's emotions and try to replace her maternal figure. Did I do something wrong?" she turned to focus her eyes on Mike's a worried look on her face.

"You didn't try to do anything. You cared about a little girl who didn't have anyone to care about her. You didn't try to replace her mother, it just... happened, I suppose. She elected you to the role, and you decided you couldn't turn her down." He smiled and kissed her neck. "In all, a very sweet thing to do. And one that I know you'll be good at."

Daria smiled slightly and put her empty glass down. She moved closer to Mike and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Oh, I sure hope you're right. I thought fighting soldiers was going to be a serious responsibility. So now I might be an X man and a mother." she laughed. "on the bright side, I totally skipped the pain of childbirth."

"Well, in all the fighting, we have to have something worth fighting for," he said, nuzzling her ear. "And I think we've done quite a good job of finding that 'something.'"

Daria giggled. "Yeah we sure did." she turned to kiss him sweetly on the lips.

"So, before I forget" and she was slipping slowly into an amnesiac state with Mike being so close. "Is Sarah okay? I'm not used to the girl not running in to say hello to me."

"She was a little shaken up. We took her up to the Doc to see what her powers were... she's got some kind of strong psychic power, but he's not sure what it is yet. But whatever it is, she kept staring at the cot where Grandpa was when..." his voice trailed off before he kept going. "Add that to the crap that happened yesterday..."

"...and we've got another little mutant on our hands." she finished. "Nice." sighing she stared up at the sky. She hadn't brought a pencil and paper and she wouldn't have had time to draw anyway but the sight of the patch of sky that was framed by healthy green trees was so beautiful.


"But that's fine" she said after some thought. "It can't be that bad. It seems like she's the right stuff for the gift. We wont have another Johnny on our hands."

"No, she's a sweetheart through and through, so she ought to turn out better than either of her idiot brothers. I'm going to make sure of it," Mike answered, a sort of scared determination in his voice.

"Um, I'm sorry." Daria laughed. "But I happen to be madly in love with one of those brothers and he's no where near being an idot." She argued leaning over an kissing Mike. "And with you as such a good role model, we have nothing to worry about." she miled at him still only inches away from his face.

There are some moments when you're positive that the world is revolving around the very place you're sitting. This was one of those moments, as Mike put his hand behind Daria's head and kissed her slowly. "Well, with an endorsement like that, who am I to argue?"