“She’s going to win Voyager…” Lena chimed out just as she heard the door click open. Glancing up from her computer as she saw the man come in, Lena figured now was as good a time as ever to take a break.
Reading glasses coming off, she rose and walked towards him to pinch his a** as she made her way towards the kitchen. “So...how did it go?”
---
Xanthus jumped at the pinch, distracted, and turned around. “Huh? Oh it… went good. I mean… the statue looks a lot like the page in the book Delilah found and that’s good… and I dunno we were talking about… I mean you know it was … challenging… to get going after I purified, and it could have been a ton harder… and we got to discussing the old idea I had for a while of trying to find a way to get them some of the same help I had… But I’d have to have to start my own place or something and that’s a ton of work.
He knew he was kind of dancing around the idea, and that he sounded guilty for even thinking it. They had a lot on their plate already… especially since he’d asked her to marry him.
“I mean it’s obviously not something I’d be doing tomorrow but it’s something I’ve been kicking around. And hearing about Gev robbing people reminded me, though if he’s threatening to kill Senshi still he might be a bit beyond helping no matter what side he’s on. At very least someone needs to set that guy down with a damn therapist to work out his issues. He’s not even an earth senshi, he’s got no excuse to hate them this much at this point…. Annnd I’m rambling. How you doing, hot stuff? Any ideas what you want for dinner?”
--
Lena had stopped mid walk to turn around and watch the big man. Her arms crossed under her chest and she smiled, shaking her head slowly. “I was wondering how long you would ramble on for this time.” The woman smiled, walking back towards him and placing a soft, sweet kiss on his lips. “At least I know you will never keep secrets from me. At some point and time they always slip out.”
Backing away, she wagged a finger for him to follow her into the kitchen. “I found a recipe for sloppy joes I want to try. Thankfully, your hamburger meal the other night meant we had everything but the beef so I picked that up just after you left.” Opening the fridge, she pulled out the meat. “And I’m cooking because you don’t do well with sharp things and heat when your mind is wandering.” A quick smirk and she dove for the rest.
“Anyway, Ignoring the idiot knight that is Gev because he sounds beyond a straight jacket kind of help, talk to me. What are you thinking Xan? I mean, it’s a great idea and one I could see being useful but you and I can’t afford to take on saving everyone…” When she said it, she stopped and looked over at him expecting a smile and a why not. “No.” She said to any idea forming.
---
“I’m not gonna harass Quinn, I swear. I mean he probably would but kid needs to work out his own goals. He can’t be the bank of Havasu forever. That doesn’t do him any favors.” He debated, trailing after her. “I mean he would but I think if I start pinching some pennies I can start putting aside money toward it. And sloppy joes sound fantastic. You’d think people from Kairatos would have developed some kind of personal fire protection what with all the flammable s**t but not that I’m aware of. I was debating some kind of machine shop or something. Maybe with some customization instead of just repairs. I mean hell I -built- a damn bike from pieces once. I could do that again, I could teach someone how.”
-----
“You are Kairatos of Mars, not Daenerys Stormborn of Dragons…” Lena chuckled as she threw the meat on. “If Mars came with fireproofing, I would be cloning your skin cells to try and make us rich. Sadly, just as the Cosmos doesn’t come with a built in star map, neither do you…” She seemed saddened by the fact she couldn’t star hop. Oh well.
“But you are right about Mr. I am trying to be an adult and have zero idea what that means...I mean Quinn.” Lena was working as she spoke. “Outside of being Daddy Morebucks, I don’t think he has really found his place. But I’m not worried about him. Who I am worried about is, like you said, those who come over and have zero place to go.”
Falling silent, she rested the spatula down a moment and leaned against the cabinet. “I see two problems with that. One, you teaching someone. And two, you teaching someone who has no concept of parts and would rather be doing nails. I mean over all it’s a good idea but I’m trying to think of something more...all encompassing? Unless we want to go after the macho men first…” Lena smirked at him. “I mean you aren’t in this alone Xan. It isn’t just your skills we can draw from. You have mine too...though I don’t know how many people can program a space drone.”
---
“Is it Morebucks? I thought it was Warbucks…. I guess Morebucks makes more sense though.” It was a bit of a dodge, as he considered things and he added. “Yeah well… anyone who can glue microscopic rhinestones to a fingernail and paint a palm tree with an nail polish brush should at least be able to do paint shop… right? Though I do know a lady who’d probably give her eye teeth to work where you do… if she ever decides to come over. I don’t know if she will, and I haven’t heard from her in a while. I think she might if I knew how to find her and talk to her but that’s just me... “ He waved a hand. “Wishful thinking. Cross that bridge when I come to it. This is why I can’t stand that Castor’s out there though, it’s hard to talk people into coming over if you can’t promise they’ll be safe from their own side. But I mean just to get started we need people to know there’s more safety net than a new name and new ID. Especially if people have to worry about loosing their families if they step wrong.
“I mean if I’m kicking something off I feel like I need to do something I know… same as you would… I don’t know how to get more all encompassing. What would you do?”
He furrowed his brow as he looked over, searching for answers.
----
“Was it War?” Lena stopped what she was doing for a moment and looked up. She seemed confused before going back to stirring. “I’m going to have to look that up after dinner. Otherwise I will never sleep tonight.”
There was a long pause after he spoke. A moment where Lena’s mind could almost be heard clicking into place. “I don’t know Xan.” Lena finally said with a long, drawn out sigh. “I know first off I wouldn’t advertise Castor. So let’s take him out of the talks completely. He also makes you jaded so for now, let’s just pretend he isn’t around.”
Turning, she fished out a few plates and placed them down before getting the buns to throw into the oven for a moment. “There are three factors I can think of at play: identity, job, home. That’s the three things they need to figure out when they change sides. So what it really comes down to then is...a network.”
---
“So… they need affordable housing… Babylon had an apartment building but that’s risky, limited for space, and… you know. Expensive as hell and high maintenance… they need ID’s which we can’t do… And mock up backgrounds so they can so much as fill in a resume with most places. We’d need someone willing to help do that, and that means either doing it legally and adding ‘mysterious cases of amnesia’ to the list of weird things in DC, or going illegally, which would also be a problem if anyone in the PD decides to crack down on that. It’s not exactly a win win situation, and it’s dangerous in either case, but that’s been a gamble for a while, though I think we’ve been safe on the grounds it’s sort of mutually beneficial to everyone that no one looks too closely at that. … And that’s where I came in on the job thing… I mean a network could be built but it would take a lot more digging into the resources we have available. It’s… doable but it would be a pain… it might not even work. It would require a lot if interpersonal cooperation, and that’s always been a problem.”
This wasn’t sounding good… or looking good. He could see stress fractures forming everywhere and wasn’t sure how to patch them.
---
“That’s why I said we need a network to do something like that Xan.” Lena sighed, her hand running through her long hair as she seemed to feel lines forming on her face as she even considered the idea. “This isn’t as simple as getting people together for pizza to help out fourth rank members of Order. This is...dealing with people’s lives. Neither of us have the money nor the background to solve these problems but…”
Her voice trailed off as she went for the oven mit and pulled out the toasted buns. “But if we had people we could rely on. People who have the resources and abilities you and I don’t. I mean yes Quinn is one who comes to mind but there have to be others out there we can get to help. Delilah? She isn’t as old of money but her family has connections. Mercy as well.” She was being picky over who she mentioned. Some of them were just...children even if they were older.
“I don’t have the credit to be able to swing a loan that big.” Lena bit her lip and sighed. “Blame that on my sperm donor. But we also need help here Xan. If this is something you want to do...really want to do...we have a long road ahead of us.”
---
“And I wouldn’t ask you to…” He promised, brow furrowed thoughtfully. “And we’d definitely need Mercy and Delilah, we’d need the senshi connections. This would be a hell of a long term project.” He screwed up his face, and groaned. “OH god. And probably another attempt to get people to Olympus. I don’t want to do that… I’d rather get my nails pulled out than have to try and wrangle that sack of cats.”
It was frequently uncomfortable enough to be in the stands… and he still remembered the meeting at the Moon. And someone was inevitably going to suggest that they had one whole apartment building, that was enough right? Oh god he just wanted a beer and he hadn’t even tried yet.
“It was such a nice… simple sounding idea…” He protested, mostly into the palm of his hand as he rubbed it down his face.
---
Killing the heat on the stove, Lena put down the spoon and turned around to face him. Her arms slowly wrapped around his neck and she pulled him into a light hug. “The simplest things normally are the most complicated.” Slowly, she nuzzled her head into his shoulder. “You have a good heart Xan. A really good and caring heart. You also have alot of big and wonderful ideas. Some we can do. Others, like this, require a good deal more than going out and just bringing people over. You know that first hand my love.”
Leaning up, she placed a kiss on his lips but quickly pulled back and grabbed his nose to shake his head. “But if you start bringing converts home like puppies I’m getting a dog house for you to sleep in!”
There was a smile on her face now as she watched him closely. “And here I thought post engagement talk would be ‘so when do you want to start a family’ and ‘do we have to invite your great aunt susan?’ Instead I get ‘honey, how was your day? I want to save the world!”
---
Xan flushed with embarrassment and cleared his throat, dropping his hand around her shoulders. “Well I kinda figured that was more in your hands to bring up or not since you’re the one that would be doing most of the work… I mean… Ok I promise not to bring home random converts. At least not without consulting you first. ” He teased. “Especially not if we’ve got any other plans going on… I mean… wait… is that a thing you want to talk about? I don’t think I can give you an rational answer when you hit me with that over sloppy joes. How’s anyone supposed to be rational over you cooking? How’s anyone supposed to be rational when you remind me that you actually said YES.” He grinned. “ … Also now I’m going to have to look up the name of that guy from Annie because otherwise I’m going to wake up in the middle of the night trying to figure it out because of course I will.”
--
Lena’s head went back with a laugh. “Honestly Xan, no. I’m not ready to have the baby talk yet. But we can practice all we want.” Kissing him again before she moved back to make sure nothing had over heated, Lena motioned for him to come fix a plate...before Voyager got into it at least.
“How about we just watch Annie over dinner and solve that problem?” She gave a grin, giving herself a nice helping. “Because I don’t think you could be rational right now with those thoughts in your head. Voyager! No!” She threw out as the cat came running in about to hop on the counter.
---
“Practice I’m ok with. Practice makes perfect and all ri-s**t!” He reached out his other arm to try and block the cat’s path, or all else failing, try and snag him out of the air. That would be pretty impressive… useless… but impressive. “No sloppy joes for you! No gas-powered kitty! I know people are into the real meat diet for cats these days but I don’t think they come with sauce. That goes for you too Jo!” He called to the gray ball of fluff that came drifting in sedately, like a queen waiting to be served, pausing and curling her tail around her feet. “I also find it hard to believe you haven’t been fed.”
--
“Twice! If you count stealing my turkey.” Lena offered, eyeing the appearance of the second cat. “No you don’t missy. You ate just as much of that as Voyager did. Don’t give me that feed me now servent look.”
But her annoyance began to slip away as she felt herself let out a laugh. The cats always seemed to know just when they needed a good tension breaker. Well, sometimes not always the right tension breaking but that was why the bedroom had a lock on it.
Sliding the plate back on the counter, Lena had to let herself laugh hard and long. “Oh Xan…” She finally said, gasping for air. “I don’t think we need to even consider having kids until we can manage these two.” Lena smiled up at him, scooping up Voyager in her arms as he pawned at her bun. “Let alone trying to save the world. Why don’t we curl up on the catch with something, eat these, maybe do a little practice after then...let’s think about how we want to make the impossible….possible after coffee tomorrow.”
---
“They’re cats.” He noted, reaching down to scoop up Jo, who melted slowly into a faintly resentful looking gray mass with eyes who seemed to engulf much of his forearms in fur. “I don’t think there’s any such thing as managing them, you just kind of hope to minimize the chaos.”
He tousled the older cat’s fur gently, and she made a small squeak that could have been pleasure or protest, but didn’t try and flee.
“That sounds like a fantastic plan though.” He leaned over and gave her another light kiss, careful to avoid crushing the cats together or getting caught by Voyager’s batting paws. “I can always count on you for good advice.”
Sirene Naiads
