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Mercy decided it was time to catch up with some family, check in to see what's been going on in her cousin's life. They met up years ago, and it surprised her when he replied to her text asking to meet up. Currently she was sitting outside of a nice café, Al bouncing happily in her lap with his Binkey. Rick had mentioned a girlfriend which surprised her ever so slightly. She got the impression that Rick was either super focused on his job or just an eternal bachelor. Either way, she was pretty intrigued.

Holi was a nervous wreck.

Usually she was comfortable with whatever she wore but since she was going with Rick to meet family, she didn't want to embarrass him. Eventually she settled on a nice sundress, with some cute wedge sandals, now she was shifting from foot to foot in Rick's Livingroom holding Lex. "What café are we going to again?"

While they had gotten in touch a while back, Richard would be the first to admit that things had just slipped through and once again he hadn’t been in touch with any family regularly. It wasn’t that he planned to isolate himself from them, it just sort of happened that way due to his various responsibilities keeping him busy. Still, when the text from Mercy arrived, Rick was just fine answering back in the positive to meet up and catch up. When he had mentioned it to Holi in passing, his girlfriend had wanted to come along so he agreed. Personally it wouldn’t surprise him if Holi was after any baby stories that Mercy might share of him but he didn’t voice that thought out loud.

Rick hadn’t bothered getting dressy like Holi had, just putting on a normal outfit of jeans and shirt. At the moment he was finishing putting on his boots when Holi asked about the cafe. “The one a couple of blocks away that was advertising flower viewing.” He said as he straightened up to give her a small smile. “Ready to go?” He asked, giving the currently melted Lexus an amused look at the ferret soaked up the young woman’s attention.

Holi gave Lex a couple more cuddles, moving to place her in her cage. Was she ready? No, she was nervous as hell. But maybe this wouldn't be all that bad. She walked up to Rick, smiling. "Ready!" Holi reached for Rick's hand, leading him to the jeep, "When are you going to let your hair grow out so I can manbun it?" She looked to his head thoughtfully while waiting for him to unlock his jeep.

“Why do you want me to have a man bun?” Rick asked as they headed out the door. Before they got too far he made sure to lock up behind them, then he followed along to the jeep. After opening the door for her, he got in himself. “Don’t you have enough hair to play with yourself?” He teased her. At the moment he didn’t particularly care one way or another if he should grow his hair out as he sort of regularly bounced between short and shoulder length from time to time.

"I think you would look cute with one." Holi perused her lips, pointing to the space buns on her head, "Yeah but playing with my own hair is boring after awhile." She slipped into the passenger seat after a quick thank you, deciding to be cheeky, "Besides I only wear certain hairstyles so you can have something to hold onto." She couldn't help a giggle at that one, used to be she would get embarrassed when joking around about that stuff but not so much anymore.

“If you say so.” He gave a shrug. Whether he would let it grow out enough to ‘man bun’ wasn’t something he was going to decide right this second after all. At her cheeky reply, he didn’t even bother to glance at her as he started up the jeep. “Honey I don’t need to hold on to your hair, your hips have enough cushion for the pushin’ to hold.” Rich got a little smirk on his face as he said this, but kept his attention to the road as he got them going.

Aaaaaand of course he would just casually mention that, and make her look at him like a fish out of water. Well…Well she could fire back! "True but what if I WANT you to pull on my hair?" She winked and turned her attention to the road, pretty proud of herself for that one. Maybe she was getting better at accepting the fact that yes, she is an adult, he'd boyfriend is a grown man. It's natural they do the things between the sheets, the bed, the floor, bathroom, kitchen….livingroom…..Her gaming chair whenever Bellamy wasn't home…

That got her to blink.

Good gravy they were terrible!

“Well then you only have to ask and I would pull it for you.” Rick said, not even batting an eye at her retort. He had been trying to get her more comfortable with expressing what she wanted after all so he wouldn't shut her down if she truly did want it. The talk didn’t have long to continue though as he was soon pulling into the parking lot for the cafe where Mercy was waiting for them.

Holi felt herself turn red, mumbling something to herself, but looking at the cafe and getting out as soon as the jeep was parked. "What does she look like?"

Mercy blinked at the jeep that pulled up, unsure if that was Richard or not. It was confirmed when she saw him get out of the jeep along with a pretty curvy female with multi-colored buns on top of her head. She waived them both over, trying not to disturb AL since he just fell asleep. "Hey! Sitting outside~"

“Well, you can see for yourself since she is right over there.” Richard said with a small smile and a nod towards he could see Mercy waving as he got out of his jeep. He locked his jeep and met Holi in front of it to walk in together. “Long time no see. I see you also brought a small cute plus one.” Rick gave a larger smile as he greeted Mercy when they were close enough.

Mercy gave Rick a warm smile and a hug, which caused Al to wake up momentarily. "Ohhhh I don't know, I think your plus one is cuter!"She walked up to Holi, "Hello! Name's Mercy, as you know I am Rick's cousin ~" she pointed to the head of curly black hair, "This is my youngest, Alistair or Al for short." The one year old clung to his mother like a lifeline giving weary looks. "He doesn't bite, that would be my oldest." She wished she was kidding about that last bit.

Holi blinked then blushed at the other woman's comment, shaking her hand, "Holi~ Nice to meet you Mercy." She looked at the baby and instantly melted, "ooooh my goodness he's so cute! His eyes are pretty interesting. Reminds me of sunset~ Could I hold him?" She tried not to tilt her head at the fact that this tiny woman birthed two babies and could still function.

Mercy smiled and nodded, "Sure~ If he gets too wriggly you can give him back." She handed Al to Holi with a bit of difficulty, booping his nose when he started to sniffle and reach for her, "you're fine little man. Mommy's right here~" Holi sat down, facing Al towards her, "You're so cute little Al!" Mercy turned to Rick, "Soooo details…How did you meet a cutie like that!? And please tell me she's over 18~" it was a joke since Holi looked like she was pretty young, but her cousin was no predator.

Richard could admit to himself that seeing Holi interacting with his second cousin was adorable, but he didn’t say it out loud yet. He looked over to Mercy and gave a small shrug and was glad his beard covered the start of a blush. “We met at one of the parks, I was on a run and she was taking pictures. And of course she is over 18. Although she’s 22 so 12 years younger.” Rick might have muttered that last bit a little bit. It wasn’t even that he was embarrassed by the age gap normally, he just wasn’t sure how much teasing was about to come his way and if he wanted to deal with it at the moment. “So how have you been?”

Mercy raised an eyebrow with a smirk, "Hmmmmn?" Of course she heard what he said and she wasn't about to knock him for it, "12 years huh? Well I sayyyy Richard! Didn't think you had it, you sly dog you!" Either way she was happy he had someone to be with. She smiled when she heard Al giggling, Holi lifting him carefully in the air. "Oohhh you know, got married, had two boys back to back, you know typical adult stuff. Dad got married and I'm now a big sister as well." She leaned in, "She gonna be the one for you?" Teasing once more but she was curious.

His blush didn’t fade right away, at least not until Mercy had started to explain how she had been and thus changed the subject. Rick gave a huffing laugh at her list of typical adult stuff and gave a smile. “Sounds like a lot. Especially having two kids one after another.” At his cousin’s question about if Holi was the one for him, Rick hummed a bit as he looked over at the young woman playing with the child. “I’m not completely sure, but we have been together for almost a year now if that says anything to you.” He didn’t take his eyes away from the duo as he went quiet for a moment. “Last time I was in a relationship for a year, he disappeared on me without so much as a by your leave.” There was the smallest hint of insecurity there for something that had happened years ago at this point but had left an impact even if he didn’t acknowledge it often.

Mercy smiled and followed his look, raising a concerned eyebrow at the last bit. “I'm sorry Rick….I’ve had that happen to me too.” Granted, she was the one that left, but it always kept her wondering sometimes. “I think there’s a good chance she’ll stick around, but I understand the hesitation. Yeah, my boys are quite the handful, but I love them regardless.” The orange that she ordered came to their table, and it was huge! “Weird…..Everything seems bigger for some strange reason. You’re seeing this right?”

Holi rubbed her nose against Al’s while he managed to grab onto her cheeks. His baby babble made her melt with happiness. “You are going to be my new bestie aren’t you?” She grinned and looked at Rick, “I think you're going to have some competition here.” shifting her gaze to Mercy, “Alistair is just too cute!” That's when she took notice of the orange, blinking, “I don't think oranges are supposed to be that big…….”

Richard didn’t say any more on the topic, just gave both a shrug and a nod at Mercy’s reassurance. He was more sure that Holi was there to say but there was still a very small part of him that would every so often ask ‘what if?’. The mention of her boys and how they behaved got a brief smile but then he too was stunned at the size of the orange that was delivered. “I am and that looks closer to a small watermelon than an orange.” The tall man looked it over and it didn’t seem like there was anything wrong with it. Even looking around the cafe he could spot a few other people with rather over sized fruit. Holi briefly caught his attention and got a chuckle out of him but as she had noticed the orange, he turned his attention back to it.

Mercy was beaming at the comment to her son, “Yep, you should see his father~” Alistair looked exactly like her but with Cass’s eyes while Lucien looked exactly like Cass but with her eyes. The critical look she gave the orange made Holi think there was actually something wrong with the food. “Soooo are we going to eat the orange or is this something that might be a little suspect?” Al reached for the orange but Mercy grabbed it and began to peel it. “Yeah, I don't see the problem, it's not like there is radiation or anything, just an overgrown piece of fruit.”

Richard eyed the fruit a bit longer then shrugged. “Could just have been a really good crop and really good fertilizer I suppose. There have certainly been cases of crops growing larger than normal without anything harmful being the cause.” Though he did pause a moment after saying this to think if any Negaverse plot was meant to be happening that involved food. The closest he could think of wasn’t going to happen any time soon and didn’t involve food really, just plants.