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Stephan stood up quickly when he heard Ari speak, hoping he wouldn't get Ina in any trouble. "Um," he said, thinking for a moment. Microwave pancakes? Well, maybe. "There's some in the freezer," he told her, "But they've got sausage in the middle." Come to think of it, he'd never tried to feed Vega meat. As soon as that was done with he headed towards the back room, now Vega's room, and retrieved a stuffed dog and a pack of animal crackers, which he offered to Ina. "No hard feelings?" he asked her quietly, seeming a little more like a father than a defeated slump.

Vega hummed happily, tugging lightly at points on Ari's shirt for amusement. He wanted this mommy, not his dumb mommy. Or daddy, whatever it wanted to be called. "Mommy!" he yelled, pronouncing her his own. Ina could get over it, he claimed this one.

"Thanks, I'm glad someone thinks so," he told Ina, dropping to sit cross-legged beside her, "You know, I thought Vega was going to be a girl." He wasn't sure why that seemed funny now, but it just did. Sure the kid acted girly enough, but he lacked the sweetness that usually came with it. Most of the time anyway. He faked it well though, which held a scary prediction for when he got older.

"You sweet!" Vega echoed, ducking his head into the fluffy collar of his jacket, giving her his best "adore me!" look. She was smart, he didn't even have to yell at her before she got things right. Maybe she'd pick the right music too. Not that dumb nengy-nuu stuff Steps liked. But then, that was a much harder test. She'd have to work her way up to it. Same for that Ina girl.

Steps took the cracker with a smile, popping it into his mouth, "Thank you Ina, that's sweet." Her other comments made him laugh inside, though the fact kind of worried him. What would happen when Vega went to school? Would he get beat up for being girly? Wait, what was he thinking, Vega would bitchslap anyone that said anything bad about him.

"Yep," Vega chimed, agreeing with her wholeheartedly. He was cute, that's for sure. "An' tah-leen-teed," he added, struggling a good deal with the word. It was the only "big word" he knew, but he'd heard it on TV and it was used to describe the best kind of people, in his opinion at least, therefore it belonged to him too.

Steps laughed as Ina was set free, she was a spitfire. Without a reason to entertain her he straightened out his knees and went back to the couch, though he felt a good bit more energized than the last time. He looked over toward the highchair, where the plate amazingly still sat.

Vega nodded purposefully, then jammed his fingers into the sticky mess of pancake. This one understood, good. And it was warm, better. Once he'd managed to claw up a few pieces he jammed them in his mouth, dripping syrup down his face and onto himself. It was good too, what couldn't she do! "Yum!" he shouted, dropping bits of pancake out of his mouth as he did.

"Huh?" Steps turned to look at the highchair and the now messy Vega. "Oh," he said, noticing the problem, "No, don't worry about it. He's kind of a pain to bathe, I'll take care of it." Well, it wasn't so much that he was a pain but that he sort of... Tried to make it a show. Then again, he tried to make everything a show.

Vega stuck his tongue out at Ina again, this time crossing his eyes as well. She was dumb to think that this good woman would just let him be ignored for a while. Though, the idea that they would play together didn't seem too bad. He could teach her a thing or two.

"If you want," Steps told her, "I should be able to take care of them myself." Probably. If not he'd have to learn sooner or later. After all it wasn't really her job to come over here and take care of them when he was the one that had suggested the playdate. "Shouldn't take very long to get him cleaned up." He was thrown a bit off guard when Ina came running at him, but shrugged it off when he realized she couldn't get up to jump on him like she had before. "I'll play with you," he promised, "As soon as everyone's cleaned up and happy."

Vega pouted at the mention of the smart woman leaving. No, new mommy was supposed to stay, old mommy was supposed to leave. But well, if she needed to. That way at least he could get a chance to be alone with this Ina girl. Maybe once she spent some time with him she'd show him a little more respect.

"I will, promise," Steps told her tiredly, shifting Vega to his other shoulder, "And don't worry, I can handle it. I've handled worse." Well, not really, but it was a good thing to seem confident, right? Oh well, if something went wrong at least it would be his crap that got broken, not that he had much worth breaking around the apartment. That was the first thing he'd learned with Vega. If there was something worth anything in the room he'd go right to it. "Come on Ina," he said, gesturing to the girl, "You can help me get him all wet." Well, it'd be more fun than her just waiting there, and why not help with the brat, goodness knows he'd need it.

Vega hrumphed and tugged on his father's hair, trying to lift himself up to a more proper level. But with a practiced hand he was pushed back down. "MAH!" he shouted, flailing his feet angrily. Ina wasn't supposed to come with them. Bath time was HIS time. Why should she get to help? She wasn't special.