Welcome to Gaia! ::

“Good choice on ‘Fira’s part, honestly.” Speaking about his wife made Luke’s smile as soft as ever, the kind of softness that would have still been there even if it weren’t for the array of colours in the meteors above them. “She usually loops it into the pride celebrations Kampana puts on.” Something about colours in the sky matching the teachers and students, if he remembered right.

He was not much of an artist, but he understood the intentions.

Richard was off with Safira, too. The only reason Luke was alone was his own nerves. Since the bank incident, he needed to keep an eye on things happening around outside. Kampana was clearly not a Negaverse operation. They both knew better than that.

Nothing went on in that studio that Safira didn’t know about.

But what about the places nearby? Luke was an accountant, not an elite superspy. Even as an accountant, it wasn’t like he was their accountant. They weren’t banks, obviously, but neither were they his clients. He had no idea who or what was on their books.

A faint sigh escaped him as he shifted position. He wished there was something he could do aside from just… watching. At least he had company.

“You know, my wife and I used to make jokes about the colours of the meteor shower.”

Luke brightened immediately. “Oh, it is. I always watch recordings if I can’t catch it in person for whatever reason.” Work, usually. “Richard’s been working aerials in, recently.” Another thing Luke would have to just… let other people handle. Watching people do acrobatics on ribbon to music was fun. The idea of being twenty feet in the air with only the ribbon keeping him up?

Significantly less fun.

At least one of the other kids would have a recording to show him. Garber had seemed distracted of late, but Tammer’s whole crew was there. Between three adults, someone would probably have the time to film it. Plus, Lee and Constantine were floating around somewhere.

Either way, he would get to watch it later, and he would get teary with pride like he always did, and they would make fun of him like they always did—

It was just different being out here, instead.

At least being able to talk about his wife and kids and their jokes was a good distraction. Nothing seemed off to him at the moment. He would probably sense more if he powered up, from what Ignacio and Richard had told him, but he didn’t want to attract trouble. He and Michelangelo were hardly warriors—

“Oh, yeah. We joke that our kids are out here being so gay that they turn the sky gay.” His laugh was warm. “When Constantine came out, I won that bet. Safira won the bet about Garber being bi.” His eyeroll was affectionate. “Had to wait til he divorced his ex-wife to find that one out.”

The corner of his mouth quirked upward.

“Now, Tammer was a puzzle. I thought Tammer was definitely straight, because she’s never had any interest in men. Safira thought she was definitely bi, because something just seemed off somehow.” Luke laughed, again. “We were both wrong. Turns out we had a lesbian daughter.”

“Yeah, no, Richard was like… fourteen when he told us he was pansexual?” He gestured widely, chuckling. “And he’s obviously married a man since.” A pensive pause. “I should have invited you to that. It was a good time.” Of course, he’d just been Michelangelo’s accountant back then, not yet his friend.

Michelangelo’s next comment about Alan got a raucous laugh out of him.

“Bet’s on no.” He flashed a devious grin Michelangelo’s way. “I’m not letting Safira win this one. I don’t think Alan’s even a man.” He hummed thoughtfully. “They were borrowing some of Tammer’s eyeliner the other day. Heard Tammer giving them grief about it.”

Now, plenty of men wore eyeliner, but… “And they were asking her for fashion advice. Alan might be a guy who wears feminine clothing! But I don’t know. I don’t think that’s it.” Safira was taking the ‘wait and see’ route this time, which meant she wasn’t raising the bet, so Luke was pretty sure he was right.

“No,” Luke laughed, “but the bet is on when they tell us. Safira’s giving it another year. I say,” he winked, “after that? Two months.”

Luke shifted to fold a leg under himself on the chair he was sitting on, propping his elbows up on the table and leaning forward in Michelangelo’s direction. “She’s holding! I think that means I’ve got a really good chance, this time.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “Safira gives it another year at least before we know, but I really think it’s more like two months.”

Alan was also going through a divorce, so that was understandably putting a damper on some things, otherwise Luke was pretty sure they’d have known already. There was a chance, he guessed, that the divorce might delay Alan’s coming out for that year Safira was saying, but he wasn’t so sure about that either. It was an amicable split, and the only thing left was arranging where the baby went when.

Well, Olivia was seven, not a baby, but still—

"Oh definitely. I don't know what it is about Mikki and Aaron, but I don't see a couple of straight kids between them." A pause. "I don't know, maybe one is straight and not transgender, but there's no way both of them are. Not with the track record this family has going." Fate seemed determined to keep Safira the only one in the family who was both straight and not trans. At first there had been Alan, obviously, but... somehow Luke didn't think there was much solace for her in the grandchildren.

Some of them were too young to know for sure yet, of course, but call it a hunch.

Anyway.

"Did you want to go grab a bite? There's a lot of food stands open downtown."